buying, runs on the bank, and protests in opposition to the market reforms. By fall 1988, price liberalization plans were halted and leadership instead focused on price reform, austerity, and retrenchment. Also in 1988, the Enterprise Law was passed. It gave enterprises the authority to make major production decisions (including dismissing workers). Following the law's passage, enterprises were leased from the state to management and became distinct legal entities. Workers in these formerly state-run enterprises lost the protections of being state employees. Industry Agriculture By 1984, agricultural production had boomed following the institution of the household responsibility system, which replaced collective farming. Then-Premier Zhao Ziyang wrote in his memoirs that in the years following the institution of household responsibility system, “the energy that was unleashed … was magical, beyond what anyone could have imagined. A problem thought to be unsolvable had worked itself out in just a few years time … [B]y 1984, farmers actually had more grain than they could sell. The state grain storehouses were stacked full from the annual procurement program.” As the government raised prices for grain and cotton and stimulated the growth of township and village enterprises, household income surged and poverty decreased from 1980 to 1985. Life improved for billions of people in rural China. The agricultural policies responsible for the boom also increased inequalities. Regions with fertile soil, transportation hubs, or big cities were far more able to take advantage of market opportunities. In 1985, the agricultural sector employed about 63 percent of the labor force and its proportion of GNP was about 33 percent. There was low worker productivity because of scant supplies of agricultural machinery and other modern inputs. Most agricultural processes were still performed by hand. There was very small arable land area (just above 10 percent of total area, as compared with 22 percent in United States) in relation to the size of the country and population. There was intensive use of land; all fields produced at least one crop a year, and wherever conditions permitted, two or even three crops were grown annually, especially in the south. Grain was the most the important product, including rice, wheat, corn, sorghum, barley, and millet. Other important crops included cotton, jute, oil seeds, sugarcane, and sugar beets. Eggs were also a major product. Pork production increased steadily, and poultry and pigs were raised on family plots. Other livestock were relatively limited