A Study Of The Adjustment Of Agriculture In The1960’s

The Great Leap Forward and People’s Commune campaigns beginning in1958brought our national economy to a serious predicament, resulting in agricultural crisis and with productive forces impaired. Consequently, agricultural output value fell successively, farmers’living standard declined and famine spread. The early1960’s saw the Communist Party of China (CPC) beginning to adjust its guiding ideology. By November,1960, vigorous revision of agricultural policies had begun. In Janurary,1961, after the9th Plenary Session of the8th CPC Central Committee, a large scale agricultural policy adjustment was in full swing. The basic starting point of the adjustment was to arouse the enthusiasm of the farmers and boost agricultural productivity.The adjustment of the1960’s took five years, coming to a conclusion at the end of1965. It was a very difficult process. First, the CPC issued a series of important documents one after another. They include Urgent Policy Instructions on People’s Commune, On Rectification of "Five Tendencies" and Regulations on Halting Requisition and Beginning Restitution. With the issuing of these documents, the Party began a rectification campaign, returned the requisitioned goods to the farmers, and stopped the wide-spread "going communist" tendency in rural areas. Second, with Mao Zedong’s strong advocacy, the CPC conducted an unprecedented survey on the work of agriculture."The Sixty Articles" was an important theoretical achievement of the survey. Drastic change was made in the institutionalization of the People’s Commune and as a result, public canteens were dissolved, supply system was abolished, the size of the commune and production brigade was cut, and the accounting unit was lowered to the production team. Third, the fundamental standing of agriculture in the national economy was established, and"Vigorously Developing Agriculture and Increasing Grain Production" was put forword. To this end, various steps were taken: government organs and urban population were streamlined so that more labor forces were mobilized and transferred to the countryside; all walks of life were called on to support agriculture and preferential finance policies were implemented to enhance the agricultural front. Fourth, a series of policies were adopted to arouse the enthusiasm of the farmers and to allow agriculture to recover from years of upheaval. These policies include "Restoring Farmers’Private Plots of Land and Encouraging Family Sidelines","Restoring Rural Fair Trading","Lending of Fields to Cope with the Famine" and "Implementation of the Household Responsibility System". The central government tried to relieve farmers’burden and increase their income by cutting tax and requisition and raising the purchase prices of agricultural produce, still.Admittedly, the adjustments of the1960’s had many limitations. Namely, adherence to the so-called "Three Banners"(The General Party Lines, The Great Leap Forward and People’s Commune), rejecting the Household Responsibility System, emphasising class struggle and failing to change the backwardness of China’s agriculture. On the other hand, the agricultural policy adjustment, on the whole, was successful. It played an important historic role and deserved an important place in the history of the CPC and the People’s Republic of China. First, it served as a forerunner and focus in regulating the national economy in this period, leading the way in the adjustments of other fronts and bringing about a general recovery and development in agriculture and national economy. Second, it curbed the spread of famine, prevented social unrest and consolidated the position of the CPC as the governing party. Third, it was a rectification of the left-deviationist mistakes by CPC itself and was part of such rectifications prior to the Lushan Meeting in1959. Efforts were made to rectify a tendency to expect quick results in socialist construcion and a speedy transition in production relations. Fourth, the adjustment constituted an important part of CPC’s later explorations on the issue of "agriculture, farmers and rural areas"(known as "San Nong"). It contributed to CPC’s rural policies adopted after the3rd Plenary Session of the11th CPC Central Committee and became an important ideological source of the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics.The agricultural policy adjustment left us rich historical legacies. Namely, these are as follows:production relations must be kept in line with productive forces; we must be fully aware that developing agriculture is both an arduous and long-term task; prospery of agriculture brings about prosperity of other industries, and agriculture is the basis of the national economy; agricultural economic policies should have the starting point of stimulating farmers’initiatives; left-deviationist mistakes must be rooted out from the guiding ideologies of the policy-makers, tendency to be over-anxious for quick results must be guarded against and expansion of class struggle avoided; industry should repay agriculture and policy systems for agriculture protection should be further improved. These legacies could be drawn on in our efforts today to better tackle the San Nong issue.