1982

Household Contract Responsibility System

On the evening of November 24, 1978, 18 farmers from Xiaogang Village in Anhui Province signed a contract, according to which its farmland would be separated and contracted to each household. This was the start of what was then called the Household Contract Responsibility System, and the village reaped a good harvest the following year. The Household Contract Responsibility System unleashed the productive forces in rural areas and greatly aroused the enthusiasm of farmers, making it the most important reform of rural production management systems in the early stage of China’s reform and opening up.