Research On The Balance Between Animal And Grassland Production And The Management Of Grassland

China is a country with abundant grassland resources and 40% of its territory is covered by natural grassland. Animal production in pasturing areas is a main component of the animal husbandry in China. It is essential to protect and improve the grassland resources for the purposes of increasing the income of ranchers, promoting the prosperity of pasturing areas, stabilizing and safeguarding border regions, building up a modern agriculture and maintaining a safe ecological environment.The main problems facing the pasturing areas are the imbalance between the development of animal production and the capacity of grassland, which results in the continuing worsening of the ecology in pasturing areas. The sustainable development and stabilization in pasturing areas are threatened by the deteriorating of the grassland. It is of great importance to take effective measures to balance the grassland and animal production, to inverse the trend of grassland deterioration and promote the sustainable development in pasturing areas.In this dissertation I analyzed the current situation of grassland resources, its production capacity and the imbalance between animal and grass production. I assessed the extent to which the grassland is overgrazed as well as the determinants of overgrazing. Policy options that can be adopted to balance grass and animal production were also discussed and policy recommendations were made based on the analysis.The basic characteristics of the grassland in China are large in total areas, but small in per capita terms, diversified in the types of grassland and widely distributed, important but fragile in ecological system, low in production with great variation. In recent years, the grasslands in major pasturing areas in China are deteriorating at an annual rate of 18.4%. Cultivation, overgrazing and other forms of misusing are the main causes of the grassland deterioration. Though Chinese government has strengthened its efforts in grassland protection, esp. since the rural reform, the speed of grassland deterioration is still exceeding the speed of grassland construction. The general trend toward deterioration has not been overturned.Animal production in pasturing areas is a main component in China's animal husbandry, and the key industry in pasturing areas as well as the main sources of income for ranchers. In the past two decades, the growth rate of animal production had increased considerably while the growth rate of the number of animals decreased. Both animal and production structures have changed towards the market demands. Grassland resources have begun to constrain livestock production and the semi-pasturing areas have become more important in terms of the growth rate.Balancing the grassland resources and the livestock is essential for grassland protection and animal production and is a challenging task in for following years. Balancing the grassland resources and the livestock is not just a concept, but also a development strategy and need institutional innovation. Currently, the grassland in China has been overgrazed by 36%. If the potential production capacity of the grassland holds constant and the number of livestock grows at a rate resembling that in the past several years, the...