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Institute of Land & Resources and Sustainable Development, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming 650221, China

1 Introduction

At present, China is in the key period of building a well-off society in an all-round way, and the decisive period of getting rid of poverty. Since the reform and opening up, the economic and social needs of our country rapidly expand, industrialization and urbanization process is advancing rapidly, but in the vast frontier and poor areas, the people still do not get rid of the limitations of poverty and backwardness[1]. InOutlineofDevelopment-orientedPovertyAlleviationinChina’sRuralAreas(2011-2020), it has been pointed out many times that land consolidation should be strengthened, which shows that land consolidation has become an important aspect of development-oriented poverty alleviation in China[2]. The practice and exploration of various regions in promoting development-oriented poverty alleviation through land consolidation have fully proved this point. For example, Huangxi Village, Xiushui County, Jiangxi Province, seizes the opportunity of leveling the land and adjusting the contracted management right, and explores a poverty-alleviation model based on the transfer of the contracted management right to enable the entire village to get rid of poverty and become rich[3]. Lichuan County, Wuning County, Jiangxi Province, and Fuping County, Hebei Province, have realized the poverty alleviation for the poor households by land consolidation and relocation[4-6]. Fuping County, Hebei Province, and Bazhong City, Sichuan Province, have achieved the actual effect of development-oriented poverty alleviation through the combination of three major projects: link between the increase and decrease of urban and rural construction land; rural land consolidation; relocation to keep out of geological hazards. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the main practices of land consolidation in promoting development-oriented poverty alleviation, as well as project profile, typical cases and results, and to provide the basis for the future land consolidation work, we have a deep understanding of the situation of land consolidation in Binchuan County in promoting development-oriented poverty alleviation, conduct on-the-spot survey of the areas with deep poverty and large scale of poor people, analyze the existing problems in land consolidation, and put forward suggestions for improvement, so as to provide reference for other areas in development-oriented poverty alleviation.

2 Generalsituationoftheresearchareaanddifficultiesindevelopment-orientedpovertyalleviation

2.1GeneralsituationBinchuan County is a newly identified key development-oriented support county in the state and province, and it is one of the first 52 pilot development-oriented poverty alleviation counties in the province with full responsibility, power, task and fund. It is also one of the first 12 poverty-reduction counties in the province, belonging to the second category of poor counties. There are three poor towns (Pingchuan, Qiaodian and Jizushan) and 23 poor villages registered in the county, 80% of which are located in mountainous or remote mountainous areas. In 2017, there were 12 251 people in 3 598 poor households registered after dynamic adjustment of poverty object, and the incidence of poverty was 4.09%. From the point of view of distribution, the poor population in Binchuan County presents the phenomenon of co-existence of wide general distribution and concentrated local distribution. All the ten townships have different levels of poverty, among them, Pingchuan, Qiaodian and Jizu Shan are relatively prominent in poverty, with the incidence of poverty of 1.60%, 1.87% and 1.82% respectively, far higher than that of seven townships such as Binju and Zhoucheng. In terms of geographical distribution, the poor are mainly concentrated in mountainous areas, especially in the eastern mountainous areas where the climate is dry, the soil is poor and the natural conditions are poor. In particular, the six extremely poor villages in the remote areas along Jinsha River, Yupao River in Binchuan County, are the concentrated habitats for "minority nationality leaping directly into the socialist society from the primitive society", and they are in cold high mountain areas, with poor natural environment and weak industrial support. Tillable land is rare, water resources are scarce, most cultivated lands still rely on natural precipitation to provide water. It is still the mountain rain-fed agriculture, and potato and corn are often taken as staple food.

2.2Difficultiesindevelopment-orientedpovertyalleviation

2.2.1Adverse natural conditions and dry climate. Binchuan County is located in the dry and hot valley zone, with dry climate and little rain. In particular, Zhongying Township, located along the Jinsha River, faces the limitations in agricultural development because of the perennial drought and little rain, and agricultural structure is single, seriously restricting the increase of the income of farmers.

2.2.2Inconvenient transportation and limited ability of self-development. Most of the 90 villages in 10 townships in the county have cement roads, but there are still a small number of villages with inconvenient traffic and information blocking, which restricts their own development.

2.2.3Backward ideas and lack of skills. According to statistics, 12 251 people in 3 598 poor households registered in the county lacking skills account for the largest proportion of 32.38%. This part of people’s cultural quality is not high, the ability to receive agricultural science and technology and labor technology skills is low, and they grasp very few scientific and practical technologies, leading to limited agricultural production and development.

3 BasicsituationoflandconsolidationinBinchuanCounty

Land consolidation is the general name of land development, reclamation, consolidation and increase-decrease link of urban and rural construction land[8]. The land consolidation in rural areas is for comprehensive treatment of unused land, agricultural land and construction land under unreasonable and inefficient use in rural areas, in order to improve the quality of cultivated land, increase the area of effective cultivated land, improve the agricultural production and living conditions and ecological environment[9]. Binchuan County combines land consolidation with precise poverty alleviation, promotes land consolidation and supplementary farmland construction in poor areas, and implements corresponding land consolidation projects in accordance with the actual conditions of various townships and towns, thus laying a new way for the poor people to extricate themselves from poverty and become rich, and promoting the development of poor areas.

4 Mainpractices, projectprofilesandtypicalcasesoflandconsolidationfordevelopment-orientedpovertyalleviation

4.1Mainpractices

4.1.1Paying close attention and offering strong propulsion. In order to do a good job in the land consolidation work, the Binchuan County Government has set up a leading group headed by the deputy head of the county and composed of members from the departments of land, auditing, and finance, with an office set up to be responsible for the coordination of relevant items in the project organization and construction, as well as supervision over the quality of the project. Through on-the-spot visits and publicity and training, the masses, especially the poor people in poor areas, will be actively involved in land consolidation work, and employment of the poor people will be increased directly or indirectly. In the process of planning and implementation of the project, it is necessary to listen to the views of the masses, rely on the masses, respect the masses, mobilize the masses, and make the adjustment of land ownership and the planning of the project open to the masses, thereby creating a good atmosphere of government leadership, department coordination, and participation of the masses throughout the county.

4.1.2Managing funds and strengthening supervision. As for the use of land consolidation project funds, it is necessary to use special funds for special purposes, establish special accounts, and carry out separate accounting. The fund allocation shall be applied for by the project construction unit on the basis of the project schedule, shall be subject to audit by the auditing unit and the project supervision unit, and shall be submitted for approval before the allocation is made.

4.1.3Strengthening post-project management and maintenance. In order to do a good job in the daily maintenance and management of the project area, to realize the long-term normal use of the relevant facilities and the engineering equipments installed and built, and to achieve the real results, the Binchuan County Land Development and Consolidation Center timely reports for acceptance after the completion of the project. The village collective in the project area is in accordance with the principle of the unity of responsibility, power and benefits, to define the obligations and responsibilities, to ensure that the construction facilities are protected for a long time, efficiently used, and the masses get benefit together.

4.2OverviewoflandconsolidationprojectsimplementedSince the implementation of precision poverty alleviation in 2014, Binchuan County has increased the effort to invest in the land consolidation projects, and has completed six land development and consolidation projects (Table 1). These projects cover four townships and 12 villages, with a total construction scale of 2 641.07 ha, an actual increase of 965.13 ha of arable land, and a total investment of 103.03 million yuan. Among them, there are four projects in the poor villages and towns registered, namely three in Pingchuan Town and one in Jizhushan Town. The area of new cultivated land is 506.52 ha in Caifeng Village of Jizhushan Town, with the largest area of new cultivated land in six projects, and the rate of new cultivated land is 62.30%. The rates of new cultivated land in Pingchuan and Jinniu towns are 50.33% and 55.70%, respectively, both over 50%. The increase of cultivated land area is helpful to ensure the food demand of the poor villages and towns and to solve the problem of food and clothing for the poor.

Table1GeneralsituationoflandconsolidationprojectsinBinchuanCountyinrecentfiveyears

ProjectareasTimeInvestmentbudget104yuanTheactualtotalinvestmentcompleted∥104yuanTheshareintheinvestmentbudget∥%Theconstructionscaleoftheproject∥haTheconstructionscalecompletedhaTheactualnewcultivatedlandarea∥haTheactualnewcultivatedlandrate∥%Twovillages(ZhongyingandPichang)inZhongyingTownship2014239．74217．8890．8880．1980．192．543．17Fivevillages(suchasPingchuan)inPingchuanTown20131943．151643．4084．57597．53597．529．291．55Twovillages(suchasDime)inPingchuanTown20151437．241178．6282．00412．46412．4611．112．69LiandongVillageinJizhushanTown(supplementarycultivatedland)20154654．904120．3688．52812．99812．99506．5262．30CaifengVillageinJinniuTown(supplementarycultivatedland)20153467．802995．9986．40761．57715．15424．2155．70DimeVillageinPingchuanTown(supplementarycultivatedland)2017164．10147．2189．7122．7722．7611．4650．33Total11906．9310303．4686．532687．512641．07965．1336．54

4.3TypicalcasesoflandconsolidationDime Village in Pingchuan Town is in a high-cold mountain region, with a land area of 60.09 km2. The administrative village has 2 400 meters above sea level, and it has 1 187 people, 285 households, 8 natural villages, historically inhabited by the Han, Yi, Lisu and other ethnic groups. At the end of 2016, the village’s total income was 163.10 million yuan. The County Bureau of Land and Resources has conscientiously increased its efforts to strive for the key anti-poverty projects in Dime Village, gaining 1.641 million yuan in prefecture-level investment funds for the Ziladi Land Consolidation Project in Dime Village, which was started on January 20, 2017 and completed on June 18, 2017. The total area of the project is 25.957 1 ha, the construction scale completed is 22.769 ha, the new cultivated land area is 11.459 9 ha, and the new cultivated land rate is 50.33%. The project is mainly composed of land leveling, irrigation and water conservancy projects, and road projects in the field.

In order to make full use of the new cultivated land and realize the maximum benefit of the land, after careful investigation and research, the County Bureau of Land and Resources and the village cadres found that most of the land in the Ziladi Land Consolidation Project area is sandy soil, and the climate conditions adapt to the growth of pomegranate, very suitable for pomegranate cultivation. It is planned to grow high-quality pomegranates on a large scale in the 3.26 ha of cultivated land newly added to Ziladi Land Consolidation Project. The initial investment mainly includes infrastructure construction cost, soil improvement cost, seedling raising and management cost, and the total budget is about 915 000 yuan. It is expected to produce significant benefits, and pomegranates start to fruit in the third year and get into full bearing period in the fourth year. By then, the output can reach 56 250 kg/ha, the output value per ha is about 450 000 yuan according to the current market price of 4 yuan per catty. After deducting the cost, the income per ha is about 225 000 yuan, and the total income of the project area is about 700 000 yuan. The income from planting pomegranate is high, and the effect is obvious. It will drive the economic development of village committee, bring jobs for villagers and guide the masses out of poverty and become rich. At present, the project is in the negotiation of attracting investment, with a good prospect for development.

5 Outcomesoflandconsolidationinpromotingdevelopment-orientedpovertyalleviation

Through the land consolidation, the comprehensive management is performed on the farmland, river, road, forest and village, which has improved the agricultural production conditions, and has produced the good benefits. First, the new road is built and hardened, which improves the traffic and transport conditions and links different villages. At the same time, this measure improves the machine-farming and transportation conditions for agricultural production, enhances the efficiency of mechanization and large-scale management, strengthens the production, transportation and marketing basis of agricultural and sideline products, and greatly promotes the construction of new rural areas in Binchuan County. Second, irrigation facilities have been set up to improve irrigation conditions, increase the area of effective cultivated land, improve the quality of cultivated land, and improve the land use efficiency and land productivity. Binchuan County, taking advantage of its unique resources in hot areas, vigorously develops citrus, jujube, grape, vegetable and other characteristic fruit and vegetable industries, and forms the distribution of one variety in one township and one industry in many townships. The characteristic agricultural products have become the main source for the impoverished masses to get rid of poverty and become rich. It is estimated that the cost of production can be reduced by 225-300 yuan per ha and the labor time for production can be reduced by 75-105 d per ha after land consolidation, thereby achieving an annual economic benefit of more than 10 500 yuan. The income of rural households in the land consolidation project area will increase from 9 000 yuan per ha to more than 45 000 yuan per ha, more than five times of the original income, and a new road of getting rid of poverty and getting rich has been successfully opened up.

In addition, the land consolidation area has also achieved good ecological benefits. Through the implementation of the land consolidation project, the soil structure has been improved obviously, the ability of resisting drought and preventing flood and drainage has been strengthened, the ability of preserving fertilizer and water and soil has been strengthened, the soil and water loss has been effectively controlled, and the sloping land, low-lying land and middle-low-yielding land has been transformed into high-yielding, stable-yielding and high-quality farmland.

6 Problemsinlandconsolidationtopromotedevelopment-orientedpovertyalleviationandsuggestionsforimprovement

6.1MainproblemsFirst, there are weak links in the basic work, in some poor areas, the broad masses of farmers have participated in the land consolidation, but the enthusiasm of the masses for participating in the land consolidation is still not high.

Second, the approval of the project is not consistent with the actual needs. In the past, the extensive approval method of land consolidation project was not based on the actual needs to make a rational plan, and it can not reflect the needs of land consolidation in various areas. This method has designed many projects which are out of line with the reality, so that some land consolidation projects are not welcomed by the masses, and the masses do not cherish the project after the completion, with poor effect. In addition, there is also the situation that the approval time of the consolidation project is too long. A project usually takes 1-2 years from the site selection to the delivery of funds, and it will be limited by the implementation of the project, which will lead to the compression of the construction period. Once the supervision fails to keep up, the construction quality of the project will be difficult to ensure, the project can not play a good benefit, and the role in promoting the precise anti-poverty is not satisfactory.

Third, the ecological environment in poor areas is fragile, and for Binchuan County, it is in located in the dry and hot valley, with dry climate and little rain, and poor people are mainly concentrated in mountainous areas. The situation is much worse in parts of the eastern mountainous areas, where the climate is dry, the soil is barren, and the natural conditions are poor. In particular, the six extremely poor villages in the remote areas along Jinsha River, Yupao River in Binchuan County, are in cold high mountain areas, with poor natural environment and weak industrial support. Tillable land is rare, water resources are scarce, most cultivated lands still rely on natural precipitation to provide water. It is still the mountain rain-fed agriculture. The land consolidation project in recent years can not be effectively carried out in the the mountainous areas from the ecological environment frangibility.

6.2Suggestionsforimprovement

6.2.1Increasing the publicity of rural land consolidation work and encouraging the participation of the masses. First of all, efforts should be made to strengthen the publicity of the land consolidation work, communicate and coordinate with the masses in a timely manner, enhance the degree of public participation and awareness of participation, and enhance the enthusiasm of the masses. Second, on this basis, it is necessary to select the village groups with high enthusiasm of the masses to conduct pilot projects, cultivate models, give full play to the exemplary role of pilot projects, and drive more villages to carry out rural land consolidation work. Finally, we should adopt incentive mechanism to encourage the masses to manage and protect the land consolidation projects, and obtain the corresponding income from it, so as to make the land consolidation projects play the greatest benefits.

6.2.2Carrying out land consolidation innovation in line with local conditions to ensure the proper role of land consolidation in the development-oriented poverty alleviation of Binchuan County. We should actively explore effective ways to establish land consolidation projects in poor mountainous areas, and promote the process of development-oriented poverty alleviation in mountainous areas. The layout of the land consolidation project should be oriented for actual use of the masses, and should be made precise and accurate. It is necessary to increase the supervision and management of land consolidation projects, and improve the professional quality of technicians and managers; strengthen the training of farmers in poor areas to participate in the work of land consolidation, so as to improve farmers’ ability to get rid of poverty and become rich and to develop themselves; improve the planning and design level of land development and consolidation projects, scientifically design land consolidation plans, and form a number of modern agricultural bases with scale and characteristics, so that land consolidation projects can bring into full play the greatest benefits and better serve poverty alleviation.

6.2.3Strengthening the comprehensive management of the ecological environment in poor areas and making overall plans for the utilization of rural land. In carrying out land consolidation in Binchuan County, we should adhere to the principle of giving priority to ecological benefits. The specific construction scheme must be in accordance with the principle of water and soil conservation. It is necessary to make reasonable layout of gully control project and small storage and drainage and drinking water project for the small watershed, to build a regional ecological environment security pattern, and improve the carrying capacity of the ecological environment. With great emphasis on the transformation of abandoned land of industry and mines, dangerous houses, and relocation of "hollow villages", we should make rational use of the surplus quota, to steadily promote the consolidation of land for rural construction, strengthen the construction of public service facilities and rural infrastructure, and promote the overall development of urban and rural areas.

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