The household responsibility system (Simplified Chinese: 户口; Pinyin: hùkǒu) was adopted by the People's Republic of China in 1958. This system, which came to replace collective farming, maintained socialist public ownership of land and some of the means of production, but made it the responsibility of households.[1]
However, by 1982 after Deng Xiaoping instituted Reform and Opening Up, households underwent a period of reform as well. They still had to contribute to state quotas (central planning) but could make their own decisions about what to plant on contracted land and could sell their surplus crops for a profit.[2] The success of the household responsibility system signified a significant transition in China's economic model and opened a new era of China's agricultural economy and rural development.
Although this system is the one still primarily used in China today, Xi Jinping began implementing smaller-scale agricultural collectivization in 2013.