A green carpet stretches far to the horizon in north China's Hebei Province. This is Guyuan where grasses like Medicago Sativa, Brassica Oleracea and Agropyron Cristatum provide rich pasture.
These vast grasslands have contributed to advances arising from the introduction of cold and drought-resistant strains of grass and new sowing technologies. This is the message from Professor Han Jianguo, head of the Institute of Grassland Science affiliated to the China Agricultural University.
Vegetation coverage rate has increased from 30 to 80 percent. Grasslands, which had once suffered from sand-encroachment are beginning to recover as the creeping tide of deterioration and desertification is turned back. The lessons learned from the success in Guyuan have already been passed on to other regions, which also depend on pasture.
Getting to the roots of the problem
China has the second largest area of grasslands in the world. They extend over some 390 million hectares of which 330 million hectares are economically productive and play an important role in ecological conservation.
The grasslands are distributed in drought and semi-drought areas and in the environmentally fragile region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. They represent some 41 percent of the national territory and account for four times the area of the arable land.
Prof. Han who has played a key role in introducing new technologies for the improvement and development of deteriorated grasslands said, "There has been a long held view that agricultural should receive priority over animal husbandry. This has been coupled with an emphasis on animal breeding rather than on pasture conservation when pressing for developments in animal husbandry. In China these viewpoints have combined to lead to a lack of priority being given either to grassland conservation or to rationalization of the productive use of the pastures. Therefore the route to improving the present situation is to be found in realizing improvements in grassland-related technologies."
According to Prof. Han large-scale conversion of grasslands into pasture has led to worsening soil conditions through the ravages of overgrazing. This has become a major source of airborne sand and dust in China with the deterioration of 50 percent of grazing lands and 80 percent of grasslands in mixed arable-grazing areas. The trend continues with a further 2 million hectares being degraded each year.
Current practices in animal husbandry do not offer adequate support through the provision and maintenance of highly productive man-made pastures. So the environment suffers as the pressures on the natural grasslands increase.
Outputs achieved in China lag way behind those in countries whose animal husbandry methods are more highly developed. New Zealand achieves production levels 82 times those in China. In the USA the yields are 20 times greater while Australia records figures 10 times those of China.
China's grasslands are not only vital to those whose livelihood depends directly on them they are becoming increasingly important in the wider context of restructuring agriculture and protecting and developing the eco-environment.
There is a current and pressing need to strengthen the application of advanced technology to support the planting, improvement and management of China's grasslands. In addition the benefits would extend beyond agriculture to the cause of environmental protection.
State planning now projects the planting and improvement of some 4 to 5 million hectares of grassland each year for the next 30 years. This will include the rescue of half (about 70 million hectares) of the grasslands which have already fallen into the clutches of desertification and alkalinity. And what's more, large areas of unproductive and low-yielding land presently devoted to agricultural use will be reborn as sources of forage and feed crops. This will serve to reduce pressure on currently overgrazed grasslands and mitigate environmental impact.
Improved grasslands need improved grasses
Pasture management is not yet well developed in China. It is held back by weaknesses in the scientific base and relatively late entry to research in the discipline coupled with shortages in both research funding and essential personnel.
There have of course been some welcome advances in the sciences necessary for conserving grasslands and promoting animal husbandry. These have arisen from projects in the Key Technologies R&D Program, the National Natural Science Foundation and the Agricultural Technologies Development Project. However there is still a big gap in the field between China and the developed countries.
The main reason for the gap can be attributed to funding which has to be seen as modest especially when expressed in terms of the vast areas involved. With the technologies currently available to it China just cannot do all it would wish to in terms of conserving, improving and developing its pastures. In particular, some projects that have been under way in recent years need further technological support. These include work to return arable land to forest and grassland, to revert pasture to grassland and the eco-shield being put in place to provide sand-control around Beijing and Tianjin.
Compared with the advances it has made in other areas, China is lagging behind in the introduction of international-standard advanced technologies in pasture management. Meanwhile its home-grown research and development always seems to be a long drawn out process.
It would be difficult to see how significant progress could be made in a short space of time through purely domestic efforts. This would especially be the case in respect of the technologies involved in improved strains of grasses suitable for forage and in the planting, management and productivity of pastures not to mention gaps in the availability of production equipment and computer software.
According to Prof. Han, the United States, New Zealand and Australia lead the world in the technologies of cultivating improved grass strains and seeds.
China has introduced improved strains from these three countries for planting trials. The results have shown production levels two to three times those of strains cultivated and produced in China.
Improved grass strains can not only meet the demands of domestic grassland planting and improvement but also have the potential to become important export products.
The developed countries have invested in research and development. This has given rise to excellence in seed production, harvesting and processing technologies. Sowing methods that do not require tillage have been introduced. Fenced rotational grazing has turned out to be a success. There have been significant advances in the standards achieved not only in seed production but also in grassland planting, management and utilization.
In addition the new technologies have promoted the mechanization of grassland planting. The work of improving the grasslands has been made more efficient facilitating optimal use of finite resources. Output levels and the quality of the product can be assured even in the face of adverse weather.
2000 saw the implementation of a project for the 'Introduction of Comprehensive Technologies for the Improvement of Deteriorated Grasslands and Subsidiary Grassland Development Technologies.'
This was undertaken by the Institute of Grassland Science affiliated to the China Agricultural University. It involved the introduction of 18 forage grass strains in 11 varieties from the United States and Canada. At the same time, advanced methods were introduced to monitor moisture content in degraded grasslands together with new technologies involved in quality testing and planting grass seed.
Some representative areas were chosen as technology demonstration zones with a role in disseminating information on pasture improvement, the re-greening of mixed arable/grazing areas, the production of grass seed for grazing and so on.
According to Prof. Han, China will need 100,000 tons of forage grass seed each year for the next 10 years. The priority now is to accelerate the introduction of improved strains and the production of high-quality forage grass seed.
(China.org.cn translated by Zhang Tingting, September 9, 2003)