The Household Responsibility System, instituted in 1978, reallocated collective agricultural land to individual rural households, giving them relative autonomy over land use decisions and crop selection. The new system revolutionized agricultural production and was enthusiastically embraced by the rural populace. Agriculture and the rural economy embarked upon a period of rapid growth. Today, China has resolved the problem of feeding its population of 1.3 billion people. It has achieved the miracle of feeding 22% of the world's population using only 7% of the world's arable land. In the process, China has made major contributions to world agriculture.

Photo by Gao Jiansheng