The Collectivisation of Agriculture

What was Chinese collectivisation?

Collectivisation was the reorganisation of land into one mass, which could be farmed as a community, rather than by individuals.

What were the stages of Chinese collectivisation?

There were 4 main stages of collectivisation under Mao:

• ❖ At first, peasants were encouraged to form mutual aid teams of up to 10 households. However, only 40% of peasants had taken up this option up by the end of 1952.
• ❖ From 1953, Mao encouraged the formation of Agricultural Producers' Co-operatives (APCs). These were made up of up to 5 mutual aid teams and allowed for an increase in efficiency.
• ❖ The APC scheme was successful, though some richer peasants took advantage of the scheme. They used it to purchase large sections of lands and hired peasants to work on them. This created resistance from the peasants and a process of forced labour took place, finally leading to this policy being paused in January 1955.
• ❖ The final stage was the introduction of collectives. These consisted of up to 3,000 households with no private ownership. By 1958, 700 million peasants were in a collective farm.

What were the results of Chinese collectivisation?

While Mao had achieved his goal of increased food output and stimulated a demand for machinery, success was short-lived due to the Great Famine that emerged in 1958.