Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

This is a state-owned farm, and Wei Hongjun needs them to serve as a ballast, rather than letting the state pay for it.

Li Shaocheng said, "Vice Premier Wei, among the state-owned farms currently failing to meet their commercial grain production targets or still in need of state funding, these are primarily veterans' farms and military farms established years ago. There are five main reasons for these problems, but they are not easily resolved."

"Tell me more specifically."

If Li Shaocheng said he didn't know, Wei Hongjun would really get angry.

Wei Hongjun had only briefly inspected the state farms to discover the problem. Li Shaocheng was the Second Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rural Affairs, the First Deputy Director of the Eighth Office of the State Council, and the Minister of Agriculture. If he claimed ignorance, he would be incompetent.

"First, these old state-owned farms have too many non-production staff. Among these farms, the percentage of non-production staff is around 14% for the relatively small number, and as high as 23% for the more numerous ones."

"How come there are so many?"

Deng Zhihui looked at Li Shaocheng in disbelief.

After Deng Zhihui was promoted to the central government to oversee rural affairs, he had too many things to deal with. Therefore, he hadn't really paid much attention to the affairs of the state-owned farms. After all, compared to the state-owned farms, Deng Zhihui focused more on rural issues, especially the cooperatives.

So he was very surprised.

The number of people on a state-owned farm who were off-duty reached 14% or even 23%.

Deng Zhihui was baffled by the high number of off-duty workers. Zhao Dezun, standing nearby, said, "Vice Premier Deng, this problem stems from the early nature of these farms. Many of the state-owned farms built in Northeast China were originally intended to house disabled soldiers. Later, these farms were converted to state-owned farms, but these disabled soldiers were bound to remain on the farms, requiring the state farms to provide for their welfare. Therefore, there were relatively many off-duty workers. Furthermore, many of them were cadres, which explains the high proportion."

"Correct."

Li Shaocheng nodded.

He said, "According to normal proportions, the number of off-duty workers on these state-owned farms shouldn't exceed 2%. But these state-owned farms are special, which is why they have so many off-duty workers. Now the salaries and subsidies for these disabled soldiers need to be covered by the state farms, which is a huge expense. For many state farms, the majority of their annual output goes towards the salaries and subsidies for these disabled soldiers, leaving very little."

Wei Hongjun and Deng Zhihui both nodded.

I understand that it is the state that should provide treatment to these disabled soldiers, and it is the state-owned farms that are responsible for it.

"There are also some farms called liberation farms. These are state-owned farms established by troops who were part of the 'Second Rebellion'. In particular, many of the uprising troops in Northeast China participated in the establishment of state-owned farms. They also had a problem. To facilitate their uprising, the Northeast Bureau agreed to many of their conditions. In particular, they maintained the benefits afforded to these officers and soldiers and allowed them to establish farms, which became known as liberation farms. As a result, these liberation farms have now become a historical issue. The farms they established typically had more cadres than staff involved in production."

Wei Hongjun frowned.

A group of troops from the "Kuomintang reactionaries" established state-owned farms after the uprising and began to enjoy themselves.

This TN is funny.

If they are not allowed to experience the power of the people's democratic dictatorship, they will really think that we are still in the Republic of China. Even if the Northeast Bureau agreed to some of their conditions at that time, it is not a reason for them to be unable to complete the collection of public grain and commercial grain now.

Li Shaocheng continued: "The second point is that the wages of these state-owned farms are high. The average monthly salary of ordinary state-owned farm workers is 32 yuan, plus an additional salary of 12.5%, the average monthly income of farmers and herdsmen is 36 yuan. This is just a state-owned farm, but the monthly income of farmers and herdsmen is 36 yuan, how can a state-owned farm afford so much money. It is mainly because these state-owned farms have high wages.

In the early days, state-owned farms were military farms, used to house soldiers. Furthermore, when state-owned farms were established, the nature of the workers on state-owned farms was considered agricultural labor, so the wages set were too high.

"I know that."

Wei Hongjun said: "Such high wages have a very bad influence on the surrounding rural areas. Nowadays, rural areas in my country are struggling to make ends meet. Farmers and herdsmen on state-owned farms do the same work and earn 36 yuan a month. What do the farmers in the surrounding rural areas think? When I was inspecting in the Northeast this time, I talked with the cadres of the cooperatives around. They all thought that the practice of state-owned farms made it difficult for them to carry out their work. When the members of the cooperative heard

"The wages of farmers and herdsmen on state-owned farms are so high, many of them are lazy and unemployed. This has a very negative impact."

"Yes. That's why the state-owned farms that were established later adopted a low-wage system when recruiting workers. Newly employed farmers and herdsmen earned only around ten yuan a month. More income depended on the state farm's economic situation."

Li Shaocheng also had a headache.

Ever since the state farms were taken back, historical issues have remained unresolved.

Now that Wei Hongjun had discovered this, he called a meeting to question him. Li Shaocheng also knew that he had failed to do his job well.

"continue."

"Third, these state-owned farms were extremely wasteful. In addition to their mandated production of public grain and commercial grain, state farms were required to hand over half of their profits to the government. However, not only did these farms fail to meet their national targets, they also used their funds for non-productive construction. For example, offices, clubs, staff dormitories, and lighted stadiums accounted for one-fifth to one-third of capital investment. Even productive construction, such as animal sheds, was of excessively high standards."

Li Shaocheng became a little angry when talking about this.

The country was unwilling to spend a penny more on industrialization, but these state-owned farms were even beginning to enjoy themselves.

Wei Hongjun didn't say anything.

Because he saw all these problems when he visited state-owned farms. The office of a state-owned farm director was larger than the current office of Wei Hongjun, a Politburo member and Vice Premier of the State Council, and the things inside were even better than those in Wei Hongjun's office.

And those offices are all newly built. It's completely off the mark.

"Fourth, when state farms were first established, they were treated like machine factories. As a result, they implemented an eight-hour workday and a system of Sunday and Sunday rest. This seriously violated the decentralized and seasonal nature of agricultural production. For example, some farms were threshing wheat before it was finished, and the workers would leave immediately. Half an hour later, a storm hit, destroying the wheat, and no one was held responsible. Because the regulations stipulated an eight-hour workday and everyone followed the rules, no one was held responsible."

Some farms imitated factories, building dormitories for their workers all together. This provided convenience for their accommodation, management, education, and recreational facilities, but it was extremely detrimental to production. This was because they failed to consider the specific characteristics of agricultural production. Many farm workers' dormitories were too far from their fields, forcing many to walk twenty or thirty miles to work. Unlike factories, where trams, cars, and bicycles were readily available, farm workers had to walk. This meant they could spend several hours walking each day, leaving little time for production. Therefore, during busy farming seasons, they had to set up temporary tents around the fields, which cost the government money. The fact that workers and their families had to eat at both ends also increased expenses.

Look, what is bureaucracy, this is bureaucracy.

State farms are managed like factories. Of course, they can be considered factories, but mechanically applying factory management methods is pure nonsense. These farm officials have no idea what it means to adapt to local conditions or to seek truth from facts.

That is why the central government called for "Agriculture to Learn from Dazhai". As a result, in some plains areas, good arable land was turned into terraces, which is an unnatural operation.

"Fifth, many of these state-owned farms operate on a fixed wage system. So, they have no incentive to work on the farms; they get paid regardless of whether the farms perform well or poorly. They have no business doing what happens on the farms. So, when surrounding farmers come to the farms and take their crops, they don't care."

“Rigid thinking.”

Wei Hongjun was very angry.

What has become of the state-owned farms?

In particular, many state farms in the early days were inexperienced and based entirely on imagined Soviet collective farms, with rules modeled after factories. But how could factories and farms be the same?

Factories have their own characteristics, and farms are for farming, so they have their own characteristics and are very different from factories.

How can there not be problems if you just mechanically apply the factory rules?

Therefore, Wei Hongjun said, "This situation must change. The state-owned farms were established to ensure they could provide more grain, turn over profits, and become the ballast of the national grain supply. They should not become departments that cannot even complete national tasks and need state aid. Comrade Shaocheng, can you tell me what new regulations your Ministry of Agriculture has implemented regarding state farms?"

"To change this situation on state farms, the Ministry of Agriculture has formulated ten new regulations. The first is to reduce the number of non-productive personnel on state farms, setting the ratio at around 2%. No state farm will be allowed to have more than 2% of non-productive personnel. Furthermore, some off-duty cadres are required to return to production. Our Ministry of Agriculture's goal is to eventually reduce the proportion of non-productive personnel on state farms to below 1.5%."

“That’s right.”

Deng Zhihui said: "Our state farms are actually expanded cooperatives. Since cooperative cadres must participate in labor, our state farm cadres cannot be separated from the masses and must also participate in production labor."

"Second, state-owned farms will adopt a low-wage system. The salaries of farm workers and herders will then be adjusted based on the farms' fulfillment of production targets."

"Third, the additional wage should be reduced. Currently, factory workers in my country receive a 12.5% ​​additional wage, but the accumulation and profits of factories and farms are completely different. Factories can offer a 12.5% ​​additional wage because they have higher accumulation and profits, but farms don't have that kind of accumulation. Farms, to put it bluntly, are just farmers, and they can't possibly compare to the profits generated by factories. Therefore, our Ministry of Agriculture is suggesting that the additional wage for state-owned garment factories should be reduced to below 7%."

It is not intentional to give workers high wages, but the farmers and herdsmen on the farm are paid low wages.

But the situations of both parties are different.

The levels of industrial and agricultural accumulation are different. Furthermore, most workers are in cities, and they all need to buy agricultural and sideline products. On the farm side, these state-owned farms are located in rural areas, so the prices of agricultural and sideline products are definitely lower than in cities.

These all need to be considered.

If farms paid the same wages as factories, they would simply not be able to sustain it. The output efficiency of farms and factories with the same workers is very different.

"Fourth, stop extravagance and waste on the farm. No large auditoriums or offices, no lighted playgrounds, no sofas or chairs, etc. are allowed.

Staff dormitories are also not allowed to be built in large buildings; they must be built to the standards of the surrounding rural areas. A ratio of non-production construction to production construction is set, striving to save costs and run the farm frugally.

"this is necessary."

Wei Hongjun nodded.

The leaders of these state-owned farms simply regarded the state-owned farms as their independent kingdoms.

They freely used farm funds to build themselves a large office and carry out various non-production construction projects. Their arrogance is even greater than that of ordinary government departments.

"It's more than just regulations. You need to establish a penalty mechanism. If any state-owned farm during spot checks dares to build large auditoriums or offices after the regulations are in place, the responsible officials will be removed from their posts and subject to internal Party discipline. Generalities are useless. Directly stipulate the maximum investment limit for non-production construction and the office specifications for cadres at different levels—all of these must be clearly defined. And then, anyone exceeding the prescribed standards will be subject to organizational and internal Party discipline."

If we don't take some tough measures, these cadres will regard themselves as heroes and act lawless. It's only been a short time since the central government's "Three Antis Movement," and these people are acting so recklessly again.

"Fifth: Farm production management is tailored to the decentralized, field-based nature of agricultural production. Employee wages are generally paid on a work-based, production-based basis, with some receiving a fixed salary and some receiving commissions from overproduction. This is primarily based on the development plans of nearby cooperatives. The Ministry of Agriculture implements a system on state-owned farms where 60% or 70% of wages are paid monthly by the farm, with the remaining 30% to 40% covered by work-based, production-based, and overproduction commissions. Additional subsidies are provided for reduced production due to special disasters. This system has been piloted on the dairy and vegetable farms of Shuangqiao Farm, with excellent results and a significant boost in worker enthusiasm. The eight-hour workday is no longer a priority; workers are now starting work early, finishing late, and performing their work responsibly and meticulously, resulting in a significant increase in production."

"State-owned farms should learn from successful cooperatives," Deng Zhihui said. "Previously, cooperatives evaluated and scored work daily, which was a waste of time, prone to arguments, and caused disorganized accounting. Consequently, many cooperatives have since adjusted to using separate quotas for each section, with major tasks being done collectively and minor ones being handled separately. Many cooperative cadres previously misunderstood collective labor, believing it to mean 'ring the bell to gather, all ready to go to the fields,' 'working in unison,' or 'squads and platoons attacking.' This approach leads to significant waste of labor. People forget that the purpose of cooperatives is to better divide labor and collaborate in production, improving efficiency, not to mandate a single, unified effort. Therefore, major farm work must be done collectively, while some tasks can be divided among various groups. Even when the cooperative does work collectively, it must be divided into sections, plots, and areas, with clear boundaries and separate tasks. Furthermore, after dividing into sections, the work points for each section must be determined in advance. Work points should not be determined ad hoc and assigned to individuals at random; this will only lead to disputes."

Deng Zhihui is fully responsible for the work of the rural cooperative.

He has been exploring models for cooperative development. Wei Hongjun and Deng Zhihui share the same view on cooperatives: they are grassroots production units. The primary purpose of establishing cooperatives is to facilitate division of labor and collaboration, thereby improving production efficiency.

How to divide the work and cooperate requires overcoming many problems.

One problem is that cooperative cadres treat cooperatives like armies fighting a war. In their view, collectivization means requiring everyone to work together; that's what collectivization means. Therefore, instead of accurately dividing labor and cooperating, cooperatives engage in agricultural work all at once, employing a massive human wave. This is a serious misunderstanding of cooperative collectivization.

Moreover, this production method wastes manpower seriously.

Another issue is the arbitrary allocation of work points. This ad hoc decision-making about who would do what and how many work points would be awarded led to constant disputes. Therefore, Deng Zhihui constantly adjusted the cooperative plan. One of the key requirements was to clearly define the work points allocated for farm work in advance. The exact amount of work points allocated for each task, and the specific amount allocated for each specific area of ​​farmland, needed to be clearly defined and then approved at the cooperative meeting.

On this basis, make good division of labor.

Once a job is completed and passes inspection, the work points are the correct ones. There's no need to record work points every day. By doing this, the accounts are clear at a glance.

"Yes. Some of our state farm cadres are former military officers. They like to work in a military-style manner. But they are not suitable for the conditions of state farms."

Li Shaocheng nodded.

Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation, including Tan Zhenlin, listened to the conversation between Wei Hongjun, Deng Zhihui, and Li Shaocheng, and kept taking notes in their notebooks. Wei Hongjun, Deng Zhihui, and Li Shaocheng were all authorities on rural issues.

Have enough experience.

The problems that occurred in state-owned farms also appeared in agricultural reclamation.

Therefore, Tan Zhenlin and others wanted to learn from the experience of state-owned farms.

Li Shaocheng continued, "Sixth: Staff dormitories will no longer be grouped together. The Ministry of Agriculture's instructions are to establish staff dormitories based on the location of farmland, modeled after natural villages, next to the farmland. Employees and their families will live together and provide their own meals. The farm will provide these employees with a small amount of land, allowing their families to grow vegetables and feed pigs, engage in some sideline businesses, and work as temporary farmworkers during busy farming seasons. This will make it easier for employees to work in the fields, and their food costs can be reduced. This will allow their families to participate in production and provide the farm with more agricultural and sideline products."

"It is absolutely necessary to adapt to local conditions. Even though it's a state-owned farm, the cultivated land shouldn't be mixed together. We need to determine where employees live based on actual conditions."

Wei Hongjun commented on it.

"Seventh: To adapt to the needs of agricultural production, we must replace the eight-hour workday on state-owned farms and the Sunday system during the busy farming season with a holiday system during the slack season. We must also revise the holiday systems on state-owned farms that imitate those of machine factories, as well as other unreasonable systems."

"Eighth: Some state farms are so large that it's not appropriate for the farms to directly manage all production. So what our Ministry of Agriculture is saying is that those state farms should be divided into a small farm system."

Ninth: State farms should be allowed to process agricultural products. This includes pressing oil, sugar, milling rice, grinding flour, preparing cured meats, and pickling fish, reducing the need to purchase these products from outside. Many state farms purchase these products at high prices. Once state farms develop their agricultural product processing industry, they can produce and consume their own grain, oil, meat, and other supplies, reducing food costs for farm workers. Furthermore, a portion of farm worker salaries could be replaced by products from these processed products, further reducing farm wage expenditures.

"Tenth: Due to the seasonal nature of agricultural production, farms must implement a diversified management strategy to adjust labor utilization during busy and slack seasons. Farms can develop animal husbandry, grow green manure, accumulate their own fertilizer, and apply fertilizer on a regular basis. Pastures should primarily focus on animal husbandry, but they should strive to be self-sufficient in grain and feed, avoiding the irrational reliance on external grain supplies. Some farms near mountains and water are permitted to operate forestry and fishery operations, striving to avoid monopolization of production. In short, state-owned farms should diversify their operations, and all agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery should be developed."

Wei Hongjun and Deng Zhihui, who were standing behind him, didn't say anything.

These are the foundations for specific farm development. Most of these measures are similar to those Deng Zhihui has implemented for cooperatives. The clothing industry is seasonal, especially in regions like the Northeast, where soil fertility varies significantly.

During the busy farming season, people are really busy; during the slack farming season, people are really idle.

However, just because there's no work on the farmland during the off-season doesn't mean you can take every day off. To avoid wasting manpower, the best approach is to comprehensively develop agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery. This includes developing side businesses, particularly in agricultural product processing.

State-owned farms have the conditions in this regard.

Wei Hongjun strongly agreed with the Ministry of Agriculture's adjustment plan. So he asked, "When did the Ministry of Agriculture discover the problems with state-owned farms?"

"In fact, we discovered the problem in the second year after the Ministry of Agriculture merged state farms into the State Farm Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture. That's why we discussed it and came up with these adjustment plans."

“If there’s an adjustment plan, why are there still so many state farms with such serious problems?”