The Chinese government’s priority to rural reforms and modern agriculture have had a major impact, one example being in Jilin province where the first group of farmers is benefiting from the right to mortgage their land for use in agriculture.

The State Council emphasized the importance of rural land reforms in a document last year which said for the first time that farmers need to be able to get a mortgage on land that they have the right to use to secure financing, on the understanding that the land is not to be transferred or land use changed.

One of these farmers is Yin Shulin who lives west of Changbai Mountain and mortgages his land rights for 70,000 yuan ($11,300). After receiving the loan, on March 24, Yin remarked happily, "Thanks to the new policy, I was able to buy a brand new tractor. And I could sign a contract on more plots and earn more money."

In commenting on this development, Dang Guoying, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Rural Development Institute, pointed out, "It emphasizes market competitiveness, which I think is very important for future rural reforms."

Therefore, agriculture-oriented Jilin province decided to closely follow the central government's policy with a pilot program that encouraged farmers to get a mortgage on their land to get more agricultural plots to increase financing and incomes in rural areas.

In describing the advantages of the new system, Li Guoqiang, head of the provincial agriculture office, said, "Now if farmer land rights can be proven acceptable for a mortgage from a financial institution, they can raise funds for further land development."

The shortage of this sort of cash has been biggest major obstacle to Jilin in its agricultural development for a long time and, according to the local Jilin Daily, the province could only come up with about 30 percent of the financial needs, leaving them as much as 80 billion yuan short.

So, it was against this backdrop that it came up with the pilot program as a way to push farmers to leverage their land rights which according to the Jilin agriculture official, is expected to eventually cover 28 grain-producing counties.

And, as Li concluded, "It's only through individual trade that the market can fix the price, so that farmers may understand the real value of their property."