As urbanization marches on and the migration of rural Chinese farmers to larger cities for higher pay accelerates, the amount of Chinese farmland being abandoned has also climbed. In order to consolidate these lands back into production, Beijing has relaxed its rules regarding the transfer of agricultural land, creating three “rights’ that will form a standardized structure to protect the involved parties while also increasing efficiency in the sector.

In the early 1980s, China adopted rural land reforms that stepped away from the country’s previous communal approach to farming. The new program, called the Household Responsibility System (HRS) allowed for rural households to lease land for a fixed amount paid to the government in exchange for the ability to independently operate their land. All excess produce or agricultural goods produced on the land could be sold on the market.

However, in recent years, as urbanization spread, farmers began abandoning their land and migrating to larger cities in search of higher paying jobs. Beginning in 2008, China initiated further reforms allowing farmers to rent, transfer, or merge their contracted land in a move to bring unattended land back into production and to foster modernization within the industry.

This movement of the rural population into China’s cities is something that Beijing supports, reports Reuters. Indeed, the Chinese government has set a goal of seeing 100 million migrants re-settle in cities by 2020 – in effect shifting rural producers into a growing urban consumer base that will drive economic growth.

As the exodus of farmers in favor of urban employment continues, China has relaxed its rules regarding the transfer of farmland, creating three separate rights – ownership rights, contracted rights, and operations rights. This key reform will standardize a system that authorities say will result in improved land circulation, higher incomes for farmers, and the development of a modern agricultural system, while also improve land and labor efficiency.

“This helps guide the orderly transfer of land operating rights and lay a system foundation for appropriate-scale agricultural operations the development and modern agriculture,” China’s Agriculture Minister, Han Changfu, told reporters at a news conference, reports Investing.com.

Although China’s farmers are still banned from selling their farmland outright, more than 30 percent of China’s farmland has been leased by farmers to others for management and operation. These reforms are expected to better protect the rights of theses lessees, which in turn is hoped will encourage more investment back into the operations, creating a more productive industry.

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Lynda Kiernan