How to advance industrialized poverty alleviation through grassland animal husbandry? Experts offer advice and suggestions
On November 14, the first International Forum on "Qinglong Sheep" Industry Development and "Southwest Grassland Capital" Construction was held in Xingyi, Qianxinan Prefecture, Guizhou Province, with experts and scholars from home and abroad gathering together to offer suggestions and advice for further advancing industrialized poverty alleviation through grassland animal husbandry in Qianxinan and even the whole of Guizhou Province.
At the forum, Ye Tao, director of the Guizhou Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office, suggested that Qianxinan strengthen the matching of forage and livestock and advance the development of the entire industrial chain. He said: "Qianxinan can determine forage by livestock and determine production by sales, comprehensively utilize perennial grassland, high-quality and high-yield forage grass, and crop straw, develop forage, shrubs, and forests in a coordinated way, and adapt measures to local conditions, forage, livestock, and people, choosing among three grassland animal husbandry development models: full grazing, semi-grazing and semi-housed feeding, and full housed feeding." Ye Tao suggested that Qianxinan actively build grassland animal husbandry parks, cultivate and introduce leading enterprises for demonstration and driving effects, accelerate the improvement of industrial chains and industrial systems, and integrate planting, processing, and sales, especially vigorously developing forage and feed, livestock and poultry products, and by-product processing, while strengthening marketing and brand creation.
"This year's No. 1 Central Document clearly proposed accelerating the development of the grass and livestock industry, carrying out pilot projects for converting grain to feed and combining planting with breeding, and promoting the coordinated development of the three-way planting structure of grain, cash crops, and forage." Liu Jiawen, deputy director of the Grassland Supervision Center of the Ministry of Agriculture, introduced in his keynote speech that this is the first time the central government has emphasized, from the level of planting and breeding, the foundational role of grass in animal husbandry, the importance of closely combining grass and livestock, and its special status in the development of large agriculture. He believes that to build the Southwest Grassland Capital and develop the "Qinglong Sheep" industry, it is necessary to persist in advancing the general direction of grass and livestock industry development, grow grass well just like growing grain, and at the same time pay attention to brand building, standardized operation, and industrialized development.
The reporter learned from the forum that in recent years, Guizhou Province has taken grassland animal husbandry as a key industry among the "top ten poverty alleviation industries," vigorously carried out industrialized poverty alleviation through grassland animal husbandry, and focused on supporting a group of project counties for sheep, cattle, chickens, ducks, and rabbits, covering all counties with poverty alleviation tasks, more than 600 townships, and more than 2,000 villages, built more than 600 demonstration bases, and supported 120,000 farming households in transferring to alternative production and employment nearby, with the projects increasing farmers' average annual income by more than 5,000 yuan. Since 2000, Qianxinan Prefecture has built 1.85 million mu of grassland and 28 contiguous pasture areas, and 150,000 farming households across the prefecture have achieved an average household income increase of more than 20,000 yuan through planting grass and raising sheep (cattle), exploring the "Qinglong Model" of planting grass and raising sheep.