ABSTRACT
There are certain problems associated with calculating national average per capita peasant incomes to do with sampling techniques and the definitions of and categorisations of income, be it gross or net, cash or kind. Thus figures commonly understated real income levels in that on-farm consumption of self-produced grain was valued at below market price and on-farm consumption of other self-produced foods, such as vegetables, might be discounted. Nevertheless national surveys, although they should
not be taken too literally, did illustrate the important general trend of rapidly rising peasant household cash incomes in the first few years of reform. One survey of 22,000 households in 589 counties undertaken in 19823 showed that the proportion of peasant households earning a cash income of between ¥200 and ¥500 annually had risen substantially from 27.4 per cent in 1978 to 66.5 per cent in 1982 (see Table 6.1). A more detailed study4 suggested that, on average, per capita income between 1978 and 1982 had more than doubled or had risen from ¥133.60 to ¥270.11 (see Table 6.2). Lee Travers made adjustments to these figures to compensate for the bias in the selection of households, and his revised figures showed a less dramatic but still significant rise in income, from ¥108.24 in 1978 to ¥165.96 in 1981.5 In 1983, another sample survey of 30,427 peasants in 682 counties spread over twenty-eight provinces revealed that average annual income per capita had risen to ¥309.80, which marked an increase of 14.7 per cent over 1982, when the average per capita income (¥264.30) was just below that of the previous survey - although, like earlier surveys, it did not take into account the simultaneous rise in prices.6 After five years of reforms, a more sophisticated survey of farm households conducted in 1984 did take price rises into account. It calculated that, although the average per capita income reached ¥355 in 1984 and represented an increase of 160 per cent over 1978 per capita income, the percentage rise would be reduced to 100 per cent after allowing for price rises.7 By 1985 the average per capita net income in rural areas had risen to ¥397.60 from ¥133.57 in 1978, representing an increase of 197.6 per cent. After deducting factors caused by price hikes, the actual growth rate was estimated to be 132.4 per cent.8
