Analysis of Changes In Pasture Animal Husbandry of Inner Mongolia, China

Өвөр Монголын Өөртөө Засах Орны бэлчээрийн мал аж ахуйн өөрчлөлтийн шинжилгээ

Abstract

This study was conducted in Khar Gobi in 2018, a pastoral region of Inner Mongolia, based on a questionnaire survey and a participatory method. Results of the study: since the 1980s, Inner Mongolian animals' husbandry pastures have been affected by changes. Pastoralism and nomadic ways have been transformed into settled grazing. For instance, herdsmen dig wells and build sheep sheds in the settlements and graze their animals in the grasslands near their households. During the winter and spring seasons, they use the grasslands as grazing pasture and stocking areas for hay, while they buy fodder for their cattle. Meanwhile, in summer and autumn, herders rent grasslands to move the cattle. Additionally, the concept of keeping "five different animals of livestock" has changed. Henceforth, households now keep two kinds of livestock (sheep and cows or sheep and horses) or only one (sheep or cows). In Khar Gobi, from 1985, horses, cattle, camels, sheep, and goats accounted for 1%, 5%, 3%, 10% and 81%, and by 2019, horses, cattle, camels, sheep, and goats accounted for 11%, 0.5%, 0.1%, 95%, and 3%. The model of division of labor (shepherds, goats, cows, horses, and camel herders) has disappeared, and cooperative production (neighboring, communion, cooperatives) has diminished. They have been hiring laborers, and production patterns have shifted to household management. In Khar Gobi, the average labor force per household dropped from 3.5 persons in 1985 to 2.54 persons in 2016. "Establishing pastoral land tenure and contracting grasslands to households" and "moving rural schools to urban areas" are the two policies that lie behind these impactful changes.