Chinese farming unproductive

Farmers don't own the land they work in China.  The government owns it all.  The land cannot be mortgaged to make large purchases, so small farms use less machinery and are more labor intensive.  

In fact, this article at Business Insider makes the case that Chinese farmers are some of the most unproductive in the world (includes a beautiful photo essay).  The author quotes Deutsche Bank as saying that South Korean farmers are 40 times more productive.

Maybe this non-productivity has something to do with China's plan to take hundreds of millions out of the countryside and put them into cities; maybe there will be a transformation of the whole agricultural picture.  But I haven't yet read anything about a grand plan for agriculture.  I would love to see these farmers own their farming business, make it vastly more productive, and enjoy the results.