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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2009, Vol. 18 ›› Issue (4): 217-223.

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Mechanisms and effects of agro-pastoral system coupling in the Inner Mongolian ecotone

LV Yu-hua1, ZHENG Da-wei2   

  1. 1.The Key Laboratory for Silviculture and Conservation of Ministry of Education, Beijing Forestry
    University, Beijing 100083, China; 2.College of Resources and Environmental Sciences,
    China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, China
  • Received:2008-09-08 Online:2009-08-20 Published:2009-08-20

Abstract: In the Inner Mongolian section of the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China, development of the transferred fattening and agro-pastoral coupling pattern has been enhanced by its high economic benefit. The increase of net income by this pattern has mainly contributed to the price increase per unit weight, the body weight increase of individual animals, and the slaughter rate increase of livestock in the agricultural region comparing with those in the pastoral region. The net profit of raising sheep with transferred fattening pattern was 20 times that of the local fattening pattern. The net profit of raising beef cattle with transferred fattening pattern was 6.5 times that of the local fattening pattern. There was hardly any forage cultivation in agricultural households before the system coupling, while the proportion of team pasture plants has reached 20%-36% after system coupling. The benefits of the transferred fattening and agro-pastoral coupling pattern can be summarized as: 1) unifying the grassland pastoral system and agricultural cultivation system; 2) reducing the over-loaded livestock carrying capacity in the pastoral region; 3) increasing the under-loaded herbivorous livestock carrying capacity in the agricultural region; 4) promoting the grassland enclosure and house raising practices in pastoral regions; 5) expediting the restoration of agricultural fields back to pastoral land.

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