ed in justifying the current land tenure system is not valid. this paper argues that the communal ownership of land is one of the remaining institutional barriers that contribute to the relative impoverishment of farmers. under this system, the operation scale of a typical farm is determined by a households population share in a village. not owning land, they also cannot use it as credit collaterals. with difficulty in their access to both land and loans for the purpose of production expansion or production restructuring, how can one expect farmers to increase their income as fast as urban population who have access to all the factors of production? the reason that the grain-growing farmers are doing even worse among all the farmers lies in the fact that the former need much bigger operation scale than say that of vegetable-growing farmers. however, under the current land system, they have similar amount of land despite the fact that they can only grow two crops a year in most areas, but the vegetable-growing farmers can grow more than 10 crops within the same period. obviously, the current land tenure system is incompatible with market principle and makes it hard for chinese farmers to fully benefit from economic growth by depriving them of access to land and credits. now that evidences show that the current land system fails to deliver equity to farmers relative to urban p

opulation, there is no reason not to reform this system that is inefficient anyway. give the rapid urbanization and industrialization that helps absorb more than 10 million rural people a year, the emergence of a growing poor and landless population is very unlikely. actually, the current land system is more likely driving the most capable and entrepreneurial farmers away from farming sectors through the reverse elimination. if not reformed, this system will only trap the poor and less entrepreneurial farmers in the rural areas. not only the farmers income will lag farther and farther behind the national average, but chinas agriculture and rural areas will also gradually lose vitality. it is high time that china started experimenting with land privatization and promoting it nationwide as soon as possible so that china can keep best of its farmers who not only have equal opportunity to share prosperity but also are competitive in the global market. －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－ 本文初稿曾在2004年3月克莱芒大学研究生院举办的中国经济研讨会，中国法律经济协会于2004年5月8日召开三农问题研讨会，中国社会科学院农

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