DM Monitoring
HOHHOT: Hai Quan, a herdsman in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is making more money with less livestock than before thanks to a subsidy policy.
China implemented the supportive policy in 2011, providing subsidies for herdsmen who stop using deteriorated grasslands.
The country has invested 45.5 billion yuan (about 6.64 billion U.S. dollars) of subsidies in the region, benefiting more than 4.9 million farmers and herdsmen every year.
“The quality of grasslands and livestock has improved although the number of livestock dropped after the policy was launched. We are making more money than before,” Hai said. “The wildlife that had disappeared from the grasslands for years came back with the improvement of the ecological environment.”
Yurelt, another herdsman in the region’s Xilingol League, can earn more than 200,000 yuan each year with 340 hectares of grasslands on lease and over 60 cows. “Such a good life was unbelievable 10 years ago,” he said.
Yurelt and his family raised over 900 sheep before the policy was implemented. However, overgrazing led to the desertification of grassland, and he failed to make ends meet due to the purchase of additional pastures.
Receiving over 10,000 yuan thanks to the policy, Yurelt started to raise cows. “The price of a cow is equivalent to more than 10 sheep, and raising cows has much less impact on the grasslands than raising sheep,” he said.
“My work was also easier since there is less livestock,” he added. Yurelt can earn about 70,000 yuan diagnosing and treating the livestock of other herdsmen with his veterinary skills.
A total of 28 million hectares of desertified and degraded grasslands in the region are being restored since the policy was implemented, according to the region’s agriculture and animal husbandry department. The monitoring data showed that the region’s average coverage of grassland vegetation reached 44 percent in 2019, an increase of 7 percentage points over 2010.
“The policy has aroused the enthusiasm of local farmers and herdsmen in protecting the grasslands and played an important role in the scientific utilization of grassland resources and the income increase of the farmers and herdsmen,” said Luo Huzai, Party secretary of Xilingol League.
