Grassland agriculture becomes a new choice for agricultural structural adjustment
China feeds 22% of the world's population with 7% of the world's arable land, creating an agricultural miracle. But the traditional agricultural structure and farming system have become increasingly difficult to adapt to the new normal of current agricultural development. According to statistics, China's per capita arable land area has dropped to 1.3 mu. It is expected that by 2030, China's population will reach 1.6 billion, and the per capita arable land area will decrease by another 25%.
To meet the needs of future agricultural development, it is necessary to transform the traditional agricultural structure, adjust production methods, and improve production efficiency. Grassland agriculture is an effective way to upgrade China's traditional arable land agriculture.
Grassland agriculture is the transformation of the existing grain-oriented arable land structure, which is dominated by cereal grain production, into a grain-and-forage structure that places equal emphasis on grain and green vegetative body production.
According to statistics, from 1990 to 2012, China's per capita grain ration consumption decreased by 16%, while meat, egg, and milk consumption increased by 226%. At this rate, by 2030, China's feed grain consumption demand will reach more than 2 times that of grain rations. The future food problem is not a shortage of grain rations, but a problem of feed grain security.
Grassland agriculture can precisely solve the drawbacks of the traditional agricultural structure and meet future development trends. Develop grain-and-forage agriculture, use the nitrogen-fixing characteristics of leguminous forage rhizobia to improve farmland; use the production potential of various forages and feed crops to increase the production of green vegetative bodies, vigorously develop herbivorous livestock in agricultural areas, gradually change the traditional agricultural structure and production methods, and further improve agricultural production efficiency and benefits.
China is rich in forage and feed plant species, with as many as 6,400 or more. They have different characteristics and ecological adaptability, and can meet the production of green vegetative bodies under various natural resources with different climates, soils, and moisture conditions. Even land that is unfavorable for grain crop and cash crop production can be used to plant suitable forages and feed plants. In the Loess Plateau region of Gansu, implementing grass-field rotation, with a rotation cycle of 3-4 years, can increase soil organic matter by 23%-24%, and each hectare of land can increase nitrogen by 100-150 kg. Without additional fertilizer application, it can increase the grain yield of the subsequent crop by more than 10%.
The space for developing grassland agriculture is extremely broad. Low- and medium-yield fields, idle farmland, gaps in forest and fruit orchards, and grassy hills and slopes are all advantageous choices for developing grassland agriculture.
According to preliminary statistics, China has 80 million hectares of low- and medium-yield fields, nearly 9.9 million hectares of idle farmland, and 1.48 million hectares of various gaps in sparse forests, tea forests, and orchards. At present, less than 10% of the area has been used for planting forage. If grassland agriculture can be implemented to use 10% of the above types of land for planting high-quality forage, without affecting the original productivity, it can increase forage hay by 100 million tons. Calculated at an average of 10 kg of forage dry matter converting to 1 kg of beef and mutton, it can increase production by about 10 million tons of beef and mutton. In addition, China also has 100 million hectares of grassy hills and slopes. The output of these grassland agriculture areas is equivalent to adding 100 million mu of good farmland.
Grassland agriculture will lead agriculture into a new era of stable grain production and prosperous development of animal husbandry.