The Logic of Chinese Farmer’s Citizenization

Abstract

Farmers’ citizenization concerns three logical aspects. First, farmers’ viability determines whether they can truly be citizenized and whether they can realize scale management of rural land. Second, farmers’ viability also determines the time for the realization of scale management of rural land and subsequently determines the coming of the Lewis turning point and commercialization point. Third, the key to viability’s coming into play lies in the government’s institutional supply. Citizenization is in step with the long process of scale management of farmland, the coming of the Lewis turning point and commercialization point, the eventual eradication of the impact of the household registration system, and the development of professional farmers. Farmers’ viability is the ultimate key to such synchronized challenges. There are two approaches to the enhancement of farmers’ viability. The first is “to invest in farmers” and the second is to alleviate the existing household registration system’s constraints on farmers. The first approach outweighs the second, for its quintessential essence is to increase farmers’ per capita capital, enhance their viability and transform China from a country with vast human resources into a country with quality human resources.

Keywords

• citizenization
• viability
• scale of farmland management
• the lewis turning point and commercialization point
• household registration system (hukou)