This study attempts to understand the background, characteristics, and historical development of the Production Responsibility System (PRS) as it evolved in the agricultural sector in Mainland China. An overall evaluation of the PRS and a discussion of its prospects are provided as well.
This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one describes the background of the PRS, and chapter two presents its overall historical development. Chapter three discusses the various manifestations of the system, its merits and defects, and how it came to be applied throughout the rural areas of Mainland China. In Chapter four, an evaluation of the system’s performance and an analysis of its impact is provided, along with a discussion of its prospective outlook. A conclusion is presented in Chapter five.
Some of the notable results of the study are given below:
1. Since 1978, when the PRS was first adopted, agricultural production, labor prod?ctivity, farmers’ income, and the quality of life in rural areas have all been improved. On the other hand, problems related to agricultural mechanization, controlling population growth in an orderly way, and alleviating the distress of the poor continue to plague agriculture in Mainland China have happened. Of especial interest are the growing gap between rich and poor farmers and conflicts arising over how best to exploit the facilities of the now defunct communes. These will probably generate some political and social unrest.
2. Although the PRS has been quite varied in its application in different areas, the type of system known as “contracting down to the household” (Bao Gan Dao Hu), which assigns the responsibility for carrying out tasks to individual households has become the dominant form of the PRS during the past five years.
3. The PRS seems to have been fully implemented and firmly established. The reform has now been extended to a range of longstanding problems that continue to upset agricultural production. The authorities are now also trying to apply the PRS to state farms, industries, and general business activities.
4. The PRS has helped to overturn the type of collective farming used in Mainland China during the past twenty years. The commune system, for example, has collapsed. How collective farming more closely resembles the cooperative farming of the mid-1950s, with the distinction that all land is still owned by the state. It is expected that small farming, whereby individual households are responsible for all of their agricultural activities even though the state maintains ownership of the land, will gradually grow in importance and ultimately replace cooperative farming as the predominant form of farming in the countryside.
