Mao introduced several agricultural reforms between 1949-1957 to increase food production in China. In 1950, he introduced an Agrarian Reform Law that redistributed land from landlords to peasants. Peasants were also encouraged to put landlords on trial in public "People's Courts" where some landlords were executed. This increased Mao's popularity among peasants. Agricultural productivity initially declined as peasants farmed individually. Mao then encouraged "Mutual Aid Teams" where peasants cooperatively farmed each other's land, but productivity did not increase enough. From 1953 onward, Mao pushed peasants to form agricultural cooperatives where land was jointly farmed. By 1955 over 90% of peasants belonged to cooperatives, which were then gathered into