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{{Short description|Practice in China, first adopted in 1979}}
The '''household responsibility system''' ({{lang-zh|s=家庭联产承包责任制|t=家庭聯產承包責任制|p=jiātíng liánchǎn chéngbāo zérènzhì}}), or '''contract responsibility system''', was a practice in [[China]], first adopted in agriculture in 1979 and officially established in 1982, by which households are held responsible for the profits and losses of an enterprise. This system, which came to replace [[collective farming]], maintained public ownership of land and some of the [[means of production]], but made production the responsibility of households. Households still had to contribute to state quotas but could make their own decisions about what to plant on contracted land and could sell via a multi-tier price system that included the lowest price for payment to the state up until the quota, a higher rate for above-quota sales to the state, and market price for crops allowed to be sold at fairs.

== Overview ==
The household responsibility system replaced collective farming.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Weber |first=Isabella |author-link=Isabella Weber |url= |title=How China Escaped Shock Therapy: the Market Reform Debate |date=2021 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-429-49012-5 |location=Abingdon, Oxon |pages= |oclc=1228187814}}</ref>{{Rp|page=163}} In the household responsibility systems, households contributed to state quotas  but could also make their own decisions about what to plant on contracted land and could sell via a multi-tier price system that included the lowest price for payment to the state up until the quota, a higher rate for above-quota sales to the state, and market price for crops allowed to be sold at fairs.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=163}} This was enabled by three policy changes: (1) the state increased the price it paid to purchase staple crops, as well as some other agricultural products, (2) the state reduced the number of agricultural products which were subject to state [[monopsony]] and [[monopoly]], and (3) the state reestablished rural markets for produce and other commodities.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Harrell |first=Stevan |title=An Ecological History of Modern China |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |year=2023 |isbn=9780295751719 |location=Seattle}}</ref>{{Rp|page=163}}

Agricultural production increased under the household responsibility system, which in Chinese [[Marxism|Marxist]] discourse was described as liberating the [[productive forces]].<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|page=162}}

==History==
===1977–1978: Preparation period===
By the late 1970s, China's collectivization and centralization of agricultural production faced several challenges, of which the shortage of agricultural products was the most urgent and serious. Droughts in rural areas resulted in serious food supply crises in urban regions. Some dissatisfied peasants began redistributing land to households on the condition that each would contribute output to the government.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Li |first=Xiaobing |title=The Cold War in East Asia |date=2018 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-138-65179-1 |location=Abingdon, Oxon}}</ref>{{Rp|page=160}}  In 1978, 18 households in [[Xiaogang, Anhui]] came up with a new arrangement where each household was responsible for their profit and losses of production, which was known as the first trial of the household responsibility system.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.12371.cn/2021/02/06/VIDE1612578001502681.shtml | title=百年瞬间丨小岗村实行农业"大包干"_共产党员网 }}</ref>{{cn|date=October 2024}}

In December 1978, the [[3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]] was held in Beijing. During the meeting, ''the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Accelerating Agricultural Development'' was passed, which proposed "devolving production responsibility to production units" ({{lang-zh|包产到组|labels=no}}). However, the policy still prohibited delegating production responsibility to households ({{lang-zh|包产到户|labels=no}}).{{cn|date=October 2024}}

Initially, these policies were only allowed as an exception applicable to poor and remote areas where peasants struggled for subsistence.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=162}} A political disagreement developed over whether household contracting should also be permitted in places where collective farming had performed well.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=162}} Opponents of household contracting included leaders who believed it would be a backwards step ideologically, as well as provincial leaders who anticipated that household contracting would weaken mechanized agricultural production.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=162}}

===1979–1981: Struggling back and forth===
In early 1979, the National Agriculture Council was founded, which started a heated debate over whether China should adopt the household responsibility system within the Chinese central government. In March 1979, the National Agriculture Council held the Seven Provinces and Three Counties Meeting on Agriculture Development, during which the majority of representatives displayed a supportive attitude towards this proposal. However, the opposing voices were also strong. Wang Renchong, the Head of the National Agriculture Council, kept emphasizing the advantages of the collective economy and opposing the idea. In the end, [[Hua Guofeng]], the [[Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party]] at the time, concluded that collective production did work, yet a certain amount of flexibility was also needed. Also, Hua Guofeng agreed that "for the impoverished households in remote regions, it is appropriate to delegate to them the responsibility and rights for their production." Hua Guofeng's words were written into the official documents of the [[Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]] and it was the first time that the idea of household responsibility system appeared in the official document of the Central Committee of the CCP.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

In January 1980, the People's Communes Management Meeting was held in Beijing. In the meeting, [[Zhou Yueli]], the Director of the Agricultural Committee of Anhui Province, introduced the system of agriculture development in Anhui. Zhou reported that by the end of 1979, 51% of production teams had adopted the production unit responsibility system, and 10% had adopted the household responsibility system; there was a significant production growth and 25% of the underdeveloped regions asked to adopt the household responsibility system. However, Zhou's idea received severe criticism from many representatives from other regions and provoked a huge debate over whether the household responsibility system was the right approach to take. In the end, Deng Xiaoping concluded the debate with the observation that household responsibility was a highly complicated and critical issue, and that it was unlikely to reach a simple conclusion.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

While the central government was still struggling with the idea, going back and forth, more and more villages went ahead and started adopting the household responsibility system. After some pilot programs, the household production responsibility system was promoted broadly in 1979.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=160}}

In April 1980, at the Long-term Planning Meeting of the Central Committee of CCP, [[Deng Xiaoping]] argued: "In underdeveloped and impoverished regions such as Northwestern China, Guizhou, and Yunnan province, approaches such as household responsibility system should be adopted".<ref name="杜润生自述:中国农村体制改革重大决策纪实">{{cite book |title=杜润生自述:中国农村体制改革重大决策纪实}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=January 2025}} During another speech in May, Deng Xiaoping supported the practice of Fengyang County and Feixi County of Anhui province and said that "[s]ome colleagues worried that to practice this kind of system might hamper the development of the collective economy. I think these worries are unnecessary. Our overall direction is developing a collective economy. As long as the productivity increases and the division of labor and commodity economy develop, our collective economy will grow from a low level to a high level."<ref name="杜润生自述:中国农村体制改革重大决策纪实"/>{{Page needed|date=January 2025}}

Besides the positive attitude towards the household responsibility system of Deng Xiaoping, the National Agriculture Council also conducted intense field research in Henan, Hebei, and other provinces to better understand the effectiveness and challenges of adopting the system. From 1980 to 1981, more and more collective agricultural production systems were transformed into household responsibility systems. By 1981, 51% of the households in Southeast provinces and Shandong province had already adopted the household responsibility system.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

===1982: Official establishment===
In December 1981, the National Agricultural Work Meeting was held in Beijing, which emphasized the idea of letting people choose by themselves which systems to use. Soon later in 1982, the Central Committee of the CCP announced its "No.{{nbsp}}1 document" for the year, ''Minutes of The National Agricultural Work Meeting'', which officially established the household responsibility system for China's agricultural production.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

The household responsibility system achieved "total victory" in 1983.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=162}} The reluctance of the leadership of some provinces to adopt the system was overcome by studies showing that the peasants strongly favored being responsible for their own production, which provided important support for Premier [[Zhao Ziyang]]'s approach of "letting the masses decide for themselves in which way they want to organize the production."<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=162}}

Another success of the household responsibility system was its price stabilization effects for peasants.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=164}} By 1984, the supply of grain had increased so much that the price paid by the state for the grain quote and above-quota procurement were both higher than the market price for grain.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=164}} Thus, "selling the quota at the planned price was no longer a tax but a subsidy for the peasants, and selling the surplus above the quota to the state protected the peasants from bearing the whole burden of the falling market prices."<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=164}} Peasants were simultaneously encouraged to increase agricultural productivity while being protected from the fall of market prices caused by the production boom.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=164}} The price stabilization effects of the household responsibility system's multi-track pricing were an intentional design to regulate agricultural output through state participation in the market.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages=164–165}}

By 1985, each household responsibility system contract specified a quota output to sell to the government, with the rest of the output capable of being consumed or sold on the market.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=160}}

The success of the household responsibility system signified a significant transition in China's economic model and opened a new era of China's agricultural economy and rural development.<ref name="杜润生自述:中国农村体制改革重大决策纪实"/>{{Page needed|date=January 2025}}

== Recent analyses ==
According to a 2021 study, the household responsibility system improved individuals' later-life health, education, and labor market outcomes, but it reduced human capital investment in children, making them less likely to receive education and more likely to remain in agriculture.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Xu |first=Huayu |date=2021 |title=The long-term health and economic consequences of improved property rights |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047272721001286 |journal=[[Journal of Public Economics]] |language=en |volume=201 |page=104492 |doi=10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104492 |issn=0047-2727 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Chinese economic reform]]
* [[Economic history of China (1949–present)|Economic history of China (1949-present)]]
* [[Economy of China]]
* [[History of agriculture in China]]
* [[Township and Village Enterprises]] (TVE)

==References==
<references />
《杜润生自述:中国农村体制改革重大决策纪实》(Accounts from Du Runsheng: Record of Major Decisions on China's Rural System Reform)
《邓小平文选》第二卷
{{Country study}} [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cntoc.html]
Yan, Yunxiang. The Chinese path to individualization. The British journal of sociology, v. 61, n. 3, p.&nbsp;489–512, 2010. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2010.01323.x

{{Economic history of China}}

[[Category:History of agriculture in China]]
[[Category:Economic history of the People's Republic of China]]
[[Category:1977 in China]]
[[Category:1978 in China]]
[[Category:1979 in China]]
[[Category:1980s in China]]
[[Category:Fengyang County]]
[[Category:Reform and opening up]]