This Day, That Year

On Jan 1, 1982, the Communist Party of China Central Committee approved the application of the household contract responsibility system, which allows farming households to manage agricultural production on their own initiatives while the farmland remains in the ownership of the rural collective.

Started in Xiaogang vilprogress lage in Anhui province in the late 1970s, the system enables farmers to use land through long-term contracts and keep the produce after paying taxes. It raised productivity and increased agricultural output, both of which were preconditions for nurturing the economic takeoff, and comprehensive industrialization and urbanization. The start of the system is widely accepted as a milestone in the country’s economic opening-up.

To further improve the productivity of farmers as well as enhance the efficiency of farmland, which is the key for resolving farmland challenges, efforts have been intensified to boost the country’s agriculture.

The central government initiated a rural land ownership reform in 2014 to grant farmers more rights to benefit from collective land in villages.

The pilot program, as a significant link in the country’s rural revitalization strategy, has expanded to 129 counties so far. This year, a total of 300 counties will be covered.

During recent years, * first half of 2017 6,000

4,000

2,000 134 545 4,761 has been made. Farmers started to own a share in collective assets and receive returns each year. The rural land ownership system has been streamlined, and grassroots governance was improved.