Cradle of China's rural reform sees tremendous changes
(people.com.cn)
Updated: 2004-08-09 11:17

Tremendous changes have taken place in Xiaogang Village, the cradle of China's rural reform, since 1978 when the village initiated a bold practice to set peasants free from collective farms.

The village is located in Fengyang County in eastern China's Anhui Province. Fengyang used to be one of the poorest counties inthe country and was home to thousands of farmers-turned-beggars.

But the fate of locals changed after Xiaogang took the lead in the country in 1978 to divide farmlands owned by the collective among individual households.

Eighteen peasants from the village signed a secret agreement at the risk of their lives, dividing the then People's Commune-owned farmlands into pieces for each family to cultivate on its own.

This was a bold move, as it was seen as "capitalist" and might have led to severe punishment from the government at that time.

But it encouraged peasants' initiatives and helped poverty-stricken locals out of starvation. From then on, local villagers were very pleased to bring in one good harvest after another.

In 1979, average income of local peasants exceeded 400 yuan (48US dollars), nearly 19 times the figure from the previous year, and local grain output reached 69,500 kg, equivalent to the total harvested from 1966 and 1970.

Deng Xiaoping, chief architect of China's reform and opening to the outside world, affirmed his support of the new practice and validated the experience of the villagers, calling the practice a "responsible contract system with remuneration linked to production."

The system was soon spread nationwide, promoted by the ruling Communist Party of China.

The introduction of the contract system brought about miraculous-seeming changes among Chinese peasants, and enabled most of them to live with enough food and clothing for the first time in many years.

In 2003, grain yield in Xiaogang hit 600,000 kg, 40 times that in 1978, and the income of local villagers averaged at 2,100 yuan (253 dollars), 96 times that in 1978.

More than 100 families in the village have built new houses of their own, and floor space for each resident exceeded 20 square meters.

As a result of the reform and development in rural areas, the number of rural people in the country without enough food and clothing has decreased to 29 million last year, from 250 million in 1978.