Jiang Gaoming

Scientific basis and practical ways forsustainable development of China’s pasture regions

Great changes have taken place in the dietary structure of urban and rural residents in China since the country’s reform and opening starting from the end of 1970s. During the past three decades, grain consumption has reduced and animal food consumption has increased significantly, causing a sharply increased demand of forage. However, the country’s cropping structure has not been adjusted timely, resulting in a large number of grain to be used as forage. Although China has a grassland area of 4×10 8 hectares, which should play an important role in the country’s ecological security and food security, its forage grass and livestock production are considerably low, with different levels of degradation across the grasslands, so that it is far not satisfied with a need of animal husbandry development, because of its extensive management and less input of prataculture. Our analysis showed that developing artificial pasture, which grass yield can be more than 10 times higher than natural grassland, is an effective way to promote the production of forage grass in China. We thus developed the “animal-husbandry development” model, which uses a small area (less than 10% of the grassland) with high quality site to develop intensive artificial pasture to enhance forage grass production, and prevents a large area of the natural grassland (more than 90% of the grassland) from degradation and over-grazing. In order to implement “animal husbandry development” model, we proposed to construct an “eco-animal husbandry experimental zone” in the grassland areas. The “experimental zone” is planned and designed as a coupled system of nature-economy-society complex in a considerably large area, to promote production of artificial pasture and animal husbandry and improve ecological functioning of natural grassland. This paper also discusses the bottleneck issues about socio-economic development in pasturing areas, and proposed seven principles for the development of pasturing areas, including grass breeding, artificial grassland planting, efficient harvesting, efficient use of water, protection and better use of natural grassland, trade-off between grass production and ecological functioning, and system development.

Characteristics and designing of eco-husbandrysystem: A case study in Zhenglan Banner, China

The eco-husbandry experimental region based on ecological principles can be designed and built on a huge area in order to increase both production and environmental sustainability. Such a grassland industry might have little or none environmental impacts, if the primary and secondary production is wisely linked to each other. This can be achieved by taking into account of the urban consumer market while maintaining high primary productivity. Through industrial restructuring, using of small area of land to protect a large number of natural grassland, we can promote restoration of degraded grassland and improve the economic incomes for local society. Grassland ecological features, together with the characteristics of eco-husbandry and its composition, ecological and economic benefits of the eco-husbandry industry are introduced in this paper. A case study using the above mentioned principles are conducted in Zhenglan Banner, Hunshandake Sandland, Inner Mongolia. Features, namely, grass, meat, milk and poultry industries, grass-grazing, eco-tourism and bio-industry-science-industry-trade Consortium (“four-in-one” eco-husbandry) are designed. On the bases of environmental conservation, the economic benefits of the project will be increased by 50%–70%. The ultimate goal of the project is to achieve the Prairie ecological and economic benefits with a win-win situation, finally increasng food supply for China’s market.

The Control of Sandstorms in Inner Mongolia

Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Abstract The frequent occurrence of sandstorms in northern China in recent years has had an immediate bearing upon the ecological degeneration of grasslands in Inner Mongolia. The long-term exploitation by humans of the primordial ecosystems has led to the degradation of the sandy grasslands. In this respect, human infringement is the predominant reason followed by natural retrogression. Hence, in order to tame the sandstorm scourge, the pressure on the depleted ecosystems from livestock grazing should be eased in such a way that native vegetation is restored while large areas of grasslands may be revived by natural processes in their normal evolutionary course. This article discusses the formative reasons behind the sandstorms, approaches harnessed to tackle the scourge, and the constructive roles played by forests and other natural factors.