Four Pastoral Areas in China

Four pastoral areas in China: Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai and Tibet.

Pastoral introduction:

Pastoral areas refer to areas where animal husbandry is the main production. It is relative to agricultural areas with planting production, forest areas with forestry production and fishing areas with fishery production. It is a breeding and production base for livestock and draught animals. Pastoral areas in China are mainly distributed in the western and northwestern marginal areas, mostly natural grasslands.

Pastoral areas should highlight the important characteristics of grassland agriculture, give full play to the role of grass industry in grassland ecosystem, combine planting grass and raising livestock with land, and combine land and livestock to increase the diversity, stability and high yield of grassland ecosystem.

At the same time, the ecosystem continues to extend outward, becoming more complex and enlarged, becoming more flexible, and establishing a grassland ecosystem that relies mainly on self-maintenance, low investment and economic vitality.

Basic meaning:

Pastoral areas are the production bases of commercial animals, draught animals and breeding animals.

Pastoral areas in the world are roughly divided into two parts:

(1) temperate pastoral areas. Including the Eurasian continent, North America and South America pastoral areas in the mid-latitude zone of the northern and southern hemispheres. Due to the low temperature, little rain and short grass, the aboveground part is mostly below 1 m, which is a xerophyte with few species and low livestock carrying capacity. And the forage production season is unbalanced, the contradiction between livestock and grass in winter and spring is more prominent, and the animal husbandry production is not stable enough;

② Tropical pastoral areas. Including semi-arid pastoral areas in Africa, Oceania and South America at low latitudes. Because it is warm and rainy all the year round, the forage grass is as high as 2 ~ 3 meters, with a wide variety and a high level of animal husbandry production. Pastoral areas in China are concentrated in the arid and semi-arid areas of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the north, northwest and southwest.

In addition, Ningxia and western Sichuan have a large grassland area and a long history of animal husbandry, and are also important pastoral areas. These areas have always been important producing areas of draft animals and livestock products such as wool and leather in China. In order to improve the land utilization rate and productivity in pastoral areas, it is necessary to make rational use of grassland resources in order to facilitate the stable and high-yield development of animal husbandry in pastoral areas.