Comprehensive Project on Desertification Control in Naiman Banner County in China

Naiman Banner county, in the Inner Mongolian region of China;
In the grazing-farming semi-arid zone (362 mm) with the severest desertification problems in the north of China.

The problem

Naiman Banner, one of the 273 most impoverished counties in China;
Experimental village, one of the most impoverished in Naiman;
A serious decline in the resource base due to high human population pressure and poor grazing and cropping practices;
Inadequate approaches and in- effective desertification control techniques;
A lack of environmental and resource management consciousness.

The solution

Banning of goat farming, which is destructive to the environment;
Reclaim desertified land for increased productivity though a comprehensive approach;
Development of appropriate farming practices suited to the fragile semi-arid region;
Refinement of economically viable traditional practices in land degradation control and rehabilitation;
Improve the living conditions and income of farmers in affected villages to lift them out of poverty.

The project achievements

Increase in crop diversity and cropping times;
Successful introduction of pig and poultry farming with high economic spin-offs;
Improved utilization of rain and well water;
Farmers in treated areas improved living conditions and financial situation;
Creation of self sufficiency and reliance through cash-generating innovations (less than 2 per cent villagers with outside employment);
Women- controlled pig and poultry production contributed to better housing

The overall achievements

Promotion of the new plastic film- bottomed rice paddy cultivation at Government level;
Establishment of an institutional framework resolving land tenure/ownership issue in each county since 1994;
Formulation of a 10 year reforestation plan in banner county to cover 45 per cent of county;
Government has streamlined land tenure to promote tree planting;
Promotion of gender equality for women.

This project was implemented by the Institute of Desert Research, Lanzhou and local communities with funds from the Chinese Government and local communities.

Success Stories: Asia Pacific