Presentation

1. An assessment of China’s approach to grassland degradation & livelihood problems in the pastoral regionScott Waldron, Colin Brown & John LongworthChina Agricultural Economics GroupThe University of Queenslandwww.nrsm.uq.edu.au/caeg

2. 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”

4. 1 (a). Levels of grassland degradation

5. 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!!!!

6. 1 (a) Levels of overgrazingSeasonality is an issue • Winter-spring grasslands heavily over-grazed • Summer grasslands less heavily grazed & sometimes under-grazed

7. 1 (b). Pastoral incomes

8. 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

9. 1 (a,b). The grassland degradation–low income cycle • How is China attempting to break the cycle? • How can this approach be improved?

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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!

13. 2 (b) Policy and legislative framework

14. 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!!!

15. 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!!!

16. 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

17. 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)

18. 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

19. 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 • Initiatives required

20. Centralisation-decentralisation (zhua-fang) cycles in grasslands management

22. 2 (b). Nomad settlement • And many more cases of resettlement