Ａｇｒｉｃｕｌｔｕｒａｌ Ｒｅｎａｉｓｓａｎｃｅ

ＺＨＯＵ　ＪＩＡＮＸＩＯＮＧ

An old Chinese proverb says that “poverty gives rise to the desire for change,”and this may in part explain why 18 farmers from a rural village in east ChinasAnhui Province made the bold decision in 1978 to fix farm output quotas perhousehold, in the hope of increasing their own income. This decision, while run-ning counter to the then prevailing state policy of collective production and a rigidequalitarian income distribution system, can be seen as a landmark in contempo-rary Chinese history. Not only has it given full play to the initiative of farmers,but it has also set off an upsurge of sweeping reform policies that have coveredmultiple spectrums of Chinese society and put the country onto a track of rapideconomic and social development.