1347-0159

AA11577672

13908

Unrefereed

This paper clarified the view of the system to the formation of the small scale farming in China based on the household contract system, the promotion of the farmland transfer and the formation of large-scale management. It is concerning the property rights, the use rights, and the contract rights of the farmland as the system that has the decisive influence upon small scale management in Chinese agriculture. The farmland was seized from the landowner during the land reform around 1950 and was evenly distributed to the farmer. Farmers obtained the property rights and the use rights of the farmland together, and this is historical reason of small scale management nowadays. In the people's commune the property rights and the use rights were belong to the same group, and agriculture management was extremely inefficient. So the household contract system came forth. The use rights were evenly distributed to the farmers though the group ownership of the farmland was maintained, and later was converted to family management. This is a prototype of a present agricultural management system. This basic stance of evenly distributing the farmland to the farmers remained unchanged about 30 years. The promotion of a farmland transfer and large-scale management has been encouraged to adjust the farmland supply and demand among farmers and to improve the agricultural output. However, it seems that the small scale management structure of Chinese agriculture will continue for a long term.