Forgotten farmers heading toward their final harvest

• Source: The Global Times
• [19:47 May 10 2009]
• Comments

As in all communes, each of the workers in Lijiagang is allocated a task by the village head according to their physical capabilities.

Fu, for example, is responsible for cultivating a section of land on a hillside. Technically, the more she works the more she can earn, although she has to abide by strict guidelines and must share tools and other equipment with her fellow villagers. Last year she earned 2,787 work points.

“I worked every day except one, and made 16,000 yuan,” she said.

Yuan Peng, an expert with the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said,“People’s communes are supposed to have a governmental, political and economic function. Lijiagang, however, is not a real commune as only a few of the villagers actually work under a unified command and share their output.

“The village is sticking to the economic principles of a people’s commune, but like many others around the country, it is fundamentally different to when it was first set up.”

People in Lijiagang make most of their money these days from other businesses, such as the local hotel, trading company and industrial park, Qu said.

The revenue they generate, however, is still used to pay for farming equipment that the commune would otherwise be unable to afford.

“We have a large street market and fruit orchards that bring in income, while the local factories generate about 98 million yuan a year,” Qu said.

“We also provide training for our young people to encourage them to find new jobs. In some parts of the country peasants have been able to triple their incomes by opening small businesses or working in factories,” Qu said.

But the situation in the countryside is changing, Yuan said.

“Instead of selling their goods to factories, farmers now process them themselves in the village factory. Rural industries have absorbed the majority of the workforce because people can no longer make a living from the land.”

More importantly, people’s communes have simply become outdated, Yuan said.

“In communes almost everything is shared, so no one is rich or poor. But that’s unfair to those who have ability and want to build a better life for themselves. At the same time, those who make little effort and do little work effectively get a free ride,” she
said.

“People’s communes are no longer production bases but are more like welfare communities that are destined to disappear sooner or later.”

As urban areas continue to grow, the prospectsfor Lijiagang’s dwindling land banks are not good, and the villagers know it.

Wang Fen is a 30-year old who left the commune last year to work as a welder in a nearby town.

“If there’s no land, there’s no commune,” she said.

“These things can’t last for much longer, and I have to look after myself.”