Rural revolution of China and its great leap for success

by R. Jinith de Silva

China is traditionally an agricultural country. 56% of its population live in rural areas. Bulk of its arable land is devoted for agriculture. During the past 35 years the Chinese government has done a tremendous lot to improve the living standards of this rural folk. About 35 years ago the people of the remote areas lived in abject poverty.

After the taxes were paid the farmers were left with little grain to sustain themselves. Roads of these villages were in a dilapidated condition with hardly any public transport system. People had only bicycles to move about. Majority of the houses did not have any toilet facility. Water was scarce and houses were mostly shanties.

By 1980 the priority of the Chinese government was to develop the living standards of the rural people and for this purpose the government set aside, 7 trillion Yuan. It is said that an incident that took place in the Xiaogang village in Anuhai Province sparked the reforms of 1978. A collective farm worked by 18 farmers entered into an agreement among themselves to divide the farm among themselves and to work as private plots.

During that period this was a offence punishable with prison sentences. But their bold decision paved the way for a revolutionary change in the land policy of the country. These farmers worked tirelessly in their plots and the result was a bumper annual yield. In 1979, the village's grain output was increased to 90,000 kg, roughly to the aggregation of all yields in the previous 20 years.

The grain the village delivered to the government was seven times the fixed quota. Per capita annual income reached RMB 400, 18 times the previous year. The national average income for a farmer that year was only RMB 113.6.

The central government in 1980 approved the bold decision of the 18 farmers and gave permission to farmers of other regions to follow suit. This paved way for China to change her land policy. Along with this development the co-operatives were also given the ownership of arable land in certain areas. Farmers gave the land they did not cultivate to co-operatives which were known as land credit co-operative system and the said co-operatives gave the land back to people who needed land for cultivation for a rent. These co-operatives also started hiring of farm equipment and machinery to farmers who needed them.

All these led to a sudden increase in the production of vital food crops. Further, the farmers were allowed to sell their excess yields in the open markets after paying the due taxes by grain.

The farmers were encouraged to engage themselves in growing vegetables, fruits, mushroom and to engage in animal husbandry. Tax reliefs were granted by the State to uplift the living standards of the farmers at the early stages. It was pronounced in 2006 that the agriculture tax which had been in existence for more than 2000 years was finally abolished.

As a result the farmers were left with an additional amount of money amounting to Yuan 133.5 billion which they invested to improve their farmlands. A subsidy system was introduced for the farmers to obtain high quality seeds and to obtain farm machinery on hire.

In 2007 a sum of Yuan 70 million was given by the state for these subsidies. Figures below give a vivid picture of the increase of harvest of the main crops due to above facilities. The total output reached 501.6 billion Kg in 2007 which was a 65% increase over the production of 1978.The cotton output reached 7.62 billion tons in 2007 and this was a 2.5 fold increase over 1978 production. Oil crop output reached for 2007 was 25.69 million tons and this was a 3.9 fold increase over 1978 production. Animal husbandry also raked in fairly a large income to farmers with the new economic reforms. Livestock rearing such as pigs, chicken and ducks brought in more income to farmers than engaging in growing of food crops. All this amounted to boost the economy of these rural areas.

The meat output reached 68.2 million tons in 2007 and this was a 9 fold increase over 1978 production.

Around 1980s with the expansion of economic activities in villages tiny towns propped up in the midst of villages and these tiny towns expanded and grew up in size with the expansion of village economies.

Instead of carrying these products to far away places the villagers could easily dispose them at their town or village fair.

With the increase of population and economic activities a new class of workers emerged in these villages who sold their labour for a fee and worked as farmhands and handymen. When some enterprising villagers opened small ventures in this small towns more job opportunities were made available for the villagers. It was estimated that in 1987 there were more than 80 million workers in villages working as full time or part time labourers.

Other than direct employment in the agriculture and animal husbandry sectors, villagers also found indirect employment in village based industries such as food processing, handicrafts, cottage industries and providing ancillary services to agriculture, animal husbandry and trade which generated employment opportunities in the rural sector and brought in additional income to the peasantry.

These villages were connected to large cities by motorable roads built by the centre with the concurrence of the provincial governments. This made easy for the products of the villages to reach markets in Urban areas. The state also provided assistance for the farmers to build houses instead of the mud huts they lived for generations. The government built flats in the areas for those who could afford to buy on long-term loans.

In addition to above, pipe borne water and solar cell electricity was provided to the villages on easy terms. In 1978 there were absolutely no hygienic toilets in the villages. By 2008 about 57.6 % of the houses in rural sector had hygienic toilets. Co-operative banks were opened in the rural areas for the peasants to obtain loans for agricultural purposes on easy terms.

The peasants were the real owners of these banks. Longwan rural co-operative bank started in June 2005 in Wenzhou city, Zhejiang province is a good example for the success story of these banks. By 2007 the said bank has given loans to the tune of 4 billion Yuan. Out of the 4639 shareholders of this bank 4000 were farmers.

By 2008 this bank had made a profit of Yuan 112 million and this amount was divided among the shareholders. An insurance scheme has been introduced for the well-being of the farmers under the supervision of the insurance regulatory commission. This scheme has helped tremendously to maintain a healthy life for the villagers.

An insurance policy was made available for a fee between 10 to 50 Yuan and this generated a dividend between 10,000 - 50,000 Yuan. In 1978 the life expectancy in rural areas was 61 years and in 2007 it reached 69.5 years.

Grass roots democracy

In 1980 in the village of Heghai in Guangxi province 85 families elected a village committee by secret ballot. This was created to assure peoples participation in the development activities of the region. By the end of 2007 there were 620000 such committees all over rural China.

Therefore one could come to the conclusion that the Chinese government has done a tremendous lot of work for the uplift of the living standards of rural people and by 2020 the central government expects to reduce the gap between the rural people and urban people to a bare minimum.

-The writer is Secretary, Sri Lanka-China Society.