An assessment of China

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An assessment of Chinas approach to grassland
degradation livelihood problems in the
pastoral regionScott Waldron, Colin Brown
John Longworth China Agricultural Economics
GroupThe University of Queenslandwww.nrsm.uq.e
du.au/caeg

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Presentation

• The problem
• 1 (a). Grassland degradation
• 1 (b). Pastoral livelihoods
• 2. The fixes
• 2 (a). Technical fixes
• 2 (b). Administrative fixes
• 2 (c). Management fixes
• 3. Assessment
• More emphasis needed on the latter - management
  fixes

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1 (a). Levels of grassland degradation
Period Severity of degradation Inner Mongolia Severity of degradation Inner Mongolia Severity of degradation Inner Mongolia
Period Light Medium High
1980s 47 35 17
2003 31 37 32
Source Lu (2005) Source Lu (2005) Source Lu (2005) Source Lu (2005)
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1 (a) Causes of degradation

• Non-livestock grazing pressure
• Rodents
• Insects
• Exposure of topsoil
• Herb picking
• Rip lines for tree planting artificial grasses
• Cultivation / land reclamation !!!!
• But consensus that over-grazing of livestock is
  the main cause!!!!

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1 (a) Levels of overgrazingSeasonality is an
issue

• Winter-spring grasslands heavily over-grazed
• Summer grasslands less heavily grazed sometimes
  under-grazed

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1 (b). Pastoral incomes
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1 (b). Pastoral livelihoods

• But income data masks other livelihood
  determinants
• Pockets of poverty
• Lack of access to
• Services (education, health, medical)
• infrastructure (housing, power, roads)
• Justification for nomad settlement resettlement

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1 (a,b). The grassland degradationlow income
cycle

• How is China attempting to break the cycle?
• How can this approach be improved?

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2. Fixes to break the grassland-livelihood cycle

• China turning attention to urgent problems
• Rmb100 billion investment in the grasslands from
  1998 to 2005
• In the full range of programs that impact on
  grasslands
• Fixes can be classed as
• Technical
• Administrative
• Management

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2 (a). Technical measures

• To increase grassland productivity
• Grassland seeding and improvement
• To reduce non-livestock grazing pressure
• Rodent and insect control
• To exclude livestock and secure property rights
• Fencing
• Other infrastructure
• E.g. Dips, market places and shearing sheds
• To intensify livestock systems !!!!!!
• Pen-feeding, feed, flock structures and breeding

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2 (b). Administrative fixes

• Technical fixes complemented by strengthening of
  administrative measures
• On the basis that local level systems
  (collective-individual co-management) have failed
• So the State is assuming control!

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2 (b) Policy and legislative framework
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2 (b). Reduce livestock return grasslands

• Set aside program like Grain for Green
• Grazing bans compensation payments
• Whole year bans, whole year pen-feeding
• Or seasonal bans especially spring grasslands
• Average of 5 years per area / household
• Will be rolled out throughout the entire pastoral
  region!!!

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2 (a,b). Technical administrative fixes

• Designed to get people livestock off the
  grasslands!!!
• Intensify livestock systems
• Settlement resettlement
• Increase off-farm labour, migration on-leasing
• Like the rest of rural China!!!

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2 (a,b). Technical administrative fixes

• Provide immediate solutions to immediate problems
• But it is simply not logistically possible to
  implement, enforce maintain over 400 million
  ha. of variable and inaccessible county
• Need to be complemented with long-term, bottom-up
  measures
• i.e. Termed as management fixes

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2 (c). Management fixes

• Seasonal turnoff cycles reduce pressure on cold
  season grasslands
• But in the context of an increase in year-end
  livestock numbers
• Maintains pressure on grasslands /or cultivated
  land

Inner Mongolia mid and end year stock
numbers Source Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Bureau of Statistics (various years)
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2 (c). Household level production decisions

• More responsive management practices include
• Increasing turnoff rates of offspring for
  slaughter to agricultural areas for finishing
• Culling unproductive breeders animal selection
• Trials / modelling show that destocking/selection
  can be offset by productivity gains income
  neutral or gains
• To increase livestock value per unit grazing
  pressure
• But these initiatives require
• Change in traditional systems (while
  maintaining indigenous knowledge)
• Better farm management capacity - empowerment of
  herders
• Which are under-emphasised in State extension
  training programs
• However not all households will be able to adapt
• Zhuanyi on-leasing
• Which involves another series of skills, language
  
• training issues

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2 (c). Integration of households into markets

• Targeting production
• To meet the demands of specific markets in which
  pastoral areas have a comparative advantage
• E.g. Hot Pot, green food, textile markets
• These can be higher value markets and can
  increase household revenues
• But meeting these market demands requires
• Better farm management skills
• As discussed above
• The development of effective local groups
  (associations, cooperatives)
• For the production assembly of homogeneous
  lines of product
• The development of an efficient marketing system
• That engenders price-grade differentials
• All of which are highly undeveloped in the
  pastoral region largely neglected

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Centralisation-decentralisation (zhua-fang)
cycles in grasslands management
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2 (b). Nomad settlement

• And many more cases of resettlement