The Household Contract Responsibility System

The household contract responsibility system with income linked to output, commonly known as "the all-round contract," allowed farming households to contract with the collective economic organizations, so that the means of production still belonged to the collectives, while the farming itself was carried out by individual families in accordance with the principle "to each according to his work." The collectives and the households thus played different roles in production and operations.

An arrangement created by Chinese farmers, the system was adopted as an effective reform measure on the Chinese mainland in the early 1980s. An outcome of rural economic structural reform, it represented a turning point in China's rural land system. Rural reform, with farm output quotas fixed by household as a basic principle, was the first step in China's campaign of internal reform.

Xiaogang Village in Fengyang County, Anhui Province, was the first to break down the old institutional barriers and allot farm output quotas to individual households. In November 1978, 18 households signed a contract that would allocate the farmland owned by the village collective to individual households who would take full responsibility for their profits and losses. This opened the way for what was later called the "household contract responsibility system." Similar approaches were adopted in Sichuan and some other provinces, thus ushering in the era of rural reform in China.

The approach of "allocating farm output quotas to individual households" was first confirmed in the National Conference on Rural Work Minutes, a document endorsed by the CPC Central Committee in January 1982, as a form of responsibility system under the socialist collective economy. Soon afterward, the "household contract responsibility system" was introduced across the country, bringing tremendous changes in rural areas.

The system encouraged the productive output of individual farmers while maintaining unified collective operation. It was applicable to both scattered small operations and relatively centralized operations of moderate scale. Rural labor productivity increased, the rural economy developed, and the standards of living of farmers improved. The household contract responsibility system has proven well-suited to Chinese agriculture, rural productive forces, and land management.

家庭聯(lián)產(chǎn)承包責(zé)任制

家庭聯(lián)產(chǎn)承包責(zé)任制，又稱(chēng)“大包干”，是由農(nóng)戶(hù)以家庭為單位同集體經(jīng)濟(jì)組織簽訂承包合同，主要生產(chǎn)資料仍歸集體所有，分配方面實(shí)行按勞分配原則，生產(chǎn)經(jīng)營(yíng)活動(dòng)中集體和家庭有分有合。家庭聯(lián)產(chǎn)承包責(zé)任制是20世紀(jì)80年代初期中國(guó)大陸農(nóng)村推行的一項(xiàng)重要改革，是農(nóng)村土地制度的重要轉(zhuǎn)折和農(nóng)村經(jīng)濟(jì)體制改革的產(chǎn)物。更為重要的是，這一制度是中國(guó)農(nóng)民的偉大創(chuàng)造，以“包產(chǎn)到戶(hù)”為標(biāo)志的農(nóng)村改革拉開(kāi)了中國(guó)對(duì)內(nèi)改革的大幕。

安徽省鳳陽(yáng)縣梨園公社小崗村是較早沖破舊體制限制，自發(fā)采取“包干到戶(hù)”的地區(qū)。1978年11月，小崗村18位農(nóng)民簽下《生死狀》，將村內(nèi)土地分開(kāi)承包，實(shí)行“分田到戶(hù)，自負(fù)盈虧”，開(kāi)創(chuàng)了家庭聯(lián)產(chǎn)承包責(zé)任制的先河。四川等其他一些省份也采取了“包產(chǎn)到組”等類(lèi)似做法，開(kāi)啟了中國(guó)農(nóng)村改革的進(jìn)程。

1982年1月，中共中央印發(fā)《全國(guó)農(nóng)村工作會(huì)議紀(jì)要》，第一次肯定“包產(chǎn)到戶(hù)、包干到戶(hù)”都是社會(huì)主義集體經(jīng)濟(jì)的責(zé)任制。此后，家庭聯(lián)產(chǎn)承包責(zé)任制逐步在全國(guó)推開(kāi)。中國(guó)農(nóng)村的面貌由此發(fā)生了翻天覆地的變化。

中國(guó)農(nóng)村普遍實(shí)行家庭聯(lián)產(chǎn)承包責(zé)任制后，既發(fā)揮了集體統(tǒng)一經(jīng)營(yíng)的優(yōu)越性，又調(diào)動(dòng)了農(nóng)民個(gè)人生產(chǎn)的積極性，既能適應(yīng)分散經(jīng)營(yíng)的小規(guī)模經(jīng)營(yíng)，也能適應(yīng)相對(duì)集中的適度規(guī)模經(jīng)營(yíng)，促進(jìn)了勞動(dòng)生產(chǎn)率的提高和農(nóng)村經(jīng)濟(jì)的全面發(fā)展，提高了廣大農(nóng)民的生活水平。實(shí)踐證明，家庭聯(lián)產(chǎn)承包責(zé)任制是適應(yīng)中國(guó)農(nóng)業(yè)特點(diǎn)、農(nóng)村生產(chǎn)力發(fā)展水平和管理水平的一種較好的經(jīng)濟(jì)形式。