Chapter 541: Household-Based Production Responsibility!

Everyone in the village office was stunned by Li Yi’s words—mainly because he said it so matter-of-factly!

After a brief silence, Feng Kai spoke up first: “Xiao Yi, this isn’t like a production team assigning tasks—you can’t just refuse to do it. Can we really defy national policy?”

“That’s right, Little Yi. I heard the higher-ups are planning to roll this policy out nationwide. If we defy it like this, won’t we be singled out as a cautionary example?”

“Even if they do, an arm can’t possibly be stronger than a thigh…”

As he listened to the villagers chattering away, Li Yi immediately raised his hand to signal for silence.

Then, clearing his throat, he said, “Uncle Feng, Uncle Zhang, and everyone else, when I said ‘no division,’ I didn’t mean to go against national policy—that wouldn’t do. We still have to follow the state’s guidelines!”

“Xiao Yi, what do you mean then? If we don’t divide the land at all, how can that be considered following national policy…”

Before Feng Kai could finish, Li Yi cut him off and said directly, “Uncle Feng, that’s because you don’t fully understand national policy—you haven’t thoroughly grasped the contents of the Household Contract Responsibility System!”

“Well…”

“Fellow villagers, the Household Contract Responsibility System, also known as the ‘Grand Contract System,’ includes two forms: contracting to households and production quotas assigned to households.”

Li Yi continued, “Under the ‘contracting to households’ model, each contracted household is required to pay agricultural taxes to the state, deliver contract-purchased products, and contribute public reserves such as the collective fund and public welfare fund to the collective. The remainder belongs to the people. This is about distributing assets owned by the collective to individual farmers, so that in the future, everyone works independently and bears their own profits and losses!”

“But the production-to-household system is different. It operates under the conditions of unified planning, unified management, unified accounting, and unified distribution. Under this system, the production tasks for crops on cultivated land, as well as certain livestock, aquaculture, and sideline industries, are contracted to farmers, who are responsible for them. It implements a system of rewards for overproduction and compensation for underproduction. Under these circumstances, it is possible to operate without dividing up the production quotas!”

In reality, whether it’s “contracting by output” or “contracting by household,” the essence remains the same: farming households, as family units, sign contracting agreements with collective economic organizations, while the primary means of production still belong to the collective.

However, with the example of Xiaogang Village setting the precedent, the vast majority of regions adopted the form of household-based lump-sum contracting.

Consequently, the “output-based contracting to households” system has effectively become a mere formality; in many places, local governments do not even mention it when publicizing or promoting national policies.

Of course, this is understandable!

After all, given the current situation, production-based contracting to households isn’t much different from the “communal pot” system, and even if mentioned, it wouldn’t be very popular with the common people.

After hearing Li Yi’s words, everyone in the room was somewhat stirred. Zhang Tongfu said happily, “So, does that mean we don’t have to divide the harvest after all?”

“Phew, that gave me a heart attack! I thought we’d definitely have to divide it up!”

“You’re absolutely right…”

At that moment, Feng Kai cleared his throat and said with a hint of concern, “Xiao Yi, all the other villages are dividing up the land and working independently. Will it really be okay for our village not to do the same?”

“Uncle Feng, the household contract responsibility system actually has both pros and cons. The upside is that it’s greatly boosted farmers’ motivation to work. Once we split up, people won’t be working for the collective anymore—they’ll be working for themselves. If they don’t put in the effort, they’ll only be cheating themselves!”

Li Yi continued, “But the drawbacks are also obvious: once everything is divided among individuals, production resources become too scattered, making it difficult to scale up and grow stronger.”

“Another issue is that individual households are too weak and lack the capacity to withstand natural risks. So it’s not necessarily true that dividing the land is always good, or that keeping it undivided is always bad!”

After a brief pause, Feng Kai asked again, “Xiao Yi, you’ve seen the world. Help us figure this out—is it better for Nianzishan Village to split up or stay together?”

Hearing this, the room fell silent once more, with everyone’s gaze fixed on Li Yi.

Li Yi didn’t beat around the bush. He said directly, “In the short term, splitting up is definitely better, because it boosts production enthusiasm and, at the very least, ensures everyone has enough to eat. But in the long run, staying together offers greater potential for development!”

This point can be seen from the “model villages” that emerged across the country in the late 1980s, such as Huaxi Village in Jiangyin and Nanjie Village in Luohe—all of which adhered to the path of collective economy.

In contrast, in the villages that had split up, while small-scale farming had achieved some growth, it was difficult to scale up and build strength, let alone achieve economies of scale.

In the end, many residents of Huaxi Village and Nanjie Village became business owners, while those who went their separate ways remained farmers—or, a decade or so later, were forced to become migrant workers. That’s the difference.

“Xiao Yi, don’t beat around the bush. You know our village’s situation well enough. Just tell us: is it better for us to split up and go our separate ways, or to keep eating from the same pot?” Feng Kai said.

“It’s not good to split up, but we can’t keep eating from the communal pot either!” Li Yi replied.

Feng Kai was taken aback for a moment, then asked, “Not splitting up, yet not eating from the communal pot—how is that…”

“Going it alone is definitely fine, but the village’s management model still needs to be adjusted. Otherwise, we’ll just be repeating the old ways, and that’s out of the question!”

Li Yi was well aware of the drawbacks of the communal system; over time, even the largest family estate could be drained dry.

“How do we adjust it?”

“The core of the household contract responsibility system is setting production quotas, investment levels, and labor points. Any surplus goes to the household, and any shortfall requires compensation!”

Li Yi continued, “We could do it this way: after surveying all the village’s land, we’d allocate it to 50 or 60 households, setting specific production quotas for each—they must meet a certain annual output!”

“As for the rest, we’ll have them raise cattle, sheep, mules, and horses—or perhaps some pigs or chickens. Once conditions allow, we can also set up factories, and some of them can work in the village-run factories.”

“But no matter what they do, they must have production quotas. We can’t go back to the old way where it didn’t matter how much or how little they worked.”

Feng Kai glanced at Li Yi with a hint of surprise, then filled his pipe with some dry tobacco, lit it, and took two deep puffs!

After exhaling a puff of slightly acrid smoke, he looked at Li Yi again and said, “Xiao Yi, you’ll help the villagers, won’t you?”

Without hesitation, Li Yi nodded and said, “I will!”

“Good. With you saying that, I can rest easy!”

He then glanced at the others in the room and said, “Xiao Yi has made his position clear. Now everyone can seriously consider whether or not to divide the land.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Zhang Tongfu, the brigade leader, spoke up loudly: “Since Little Yi says that splitting the land might just fill our bellies, but not splitting it could lead to greater development, I support keeping it all together. After all, we’re not going hungry right now, are we?”

“Right, I agree we shouldn’t split up either!” said Liu Darei.

“Why split up? We can see our lives are getting better. Let’s not split…”

“No split…”

Hearing that no one wanted to split up and go their separate ways, Feng Kai immediately slapped the round table in front of him, stood up, and declared, “Since no one wants to split up, then we won’t!”

At these words, the room erupted in enthusiastic applause and cheers.

Once the crowd had calmed down a bit, Feng Kai turned to Li Yi and asked, “Xiao Yi, what should we do next?”

“Uncle, you guys just keep focusing on this year’s production. Leave the rest to me!”

“What do you plan to do?”

“First, I’ll discuss the village’s request to implement the household responsibility system with the county leaders. Then I’ll draw up a detailed development plan for the village, and you can implement it step by step according to the plan!”

“Alright, then we’ll leave this to you!”

“Don’t worry…”

……….