Grasslands Clad in Green, Herders Reap Real Benefits: A Win-Win for Ecology and Livelihoods

In March 2014, the "Grassland Rodent Eradication and Disaster Reduction" campaign was listed by the Ministry of Agriculture as one of the eight key activities of the "Serving Farmers" program, with the National Animal Husbandry Station responsible for its organization and implementation. Since the campaign began, animal husbandry and agriculture departments at all levels have treated grassland rodent control as an important lever for advancing grassland ecological protection and pastoral area development, weaving "Serving Farmers" through every stage of grassland rodent control, and traveling to key areas to bring technology into villages and households, raising the rate of scientific and technological uptake in control areas. Party members and officials took the lead by example, serving at the grassroots and serving herders, acting as pioneers and role models, staying close to reality and close to herders, listening to farmers' and herders' opinions, and solving their practical problems, which further mobilized farmers' and herders' enthusiasm for carrying out grassland rodent control. To date, 62,000 person-times of herders have been trained nationwide, 110 million mu of grassland rodent damage has been controlled, 990 million yuan in direct economic losses to forage grass has been recovered, and 63,000 herder households have benefited, achieving the goal of "protecting grasslands, reducing losses, and benefiting herders."

Professionalized Rodent Catching Proves Effective

⟦NL> On the Gannan grasslands in June, the forage grass has already turned fully green. A zokor is cautiously making its way up along its burrow one meter underground, searching for plant roots and stems. Above the burrow, a rodent-catching arrow waits quietly for its arrival.

Since May, in the important Yellow River water-supply ecological function area on the northeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province has begun large-scale control of zokors using manual bow-and-arrow capture.

At a rodent-catching site in Ganja Township, Xiahe County, a rodent catcher stops in front of a newly raised mound of earth. He roughly measures with his hand, digs open the soil mound that has not yet fully dried in the sun, and a fist-sized rodent hole is exposed. He deftly buries a homemade bow above the hole, then strings the iron arrow, and uses a shovel to cut a piece of turf to cover the zokor's hole. Setting the bow and nocking the arrow takes less than 3 minutes in all. Each worker can catch an average of fifty or sixty plateau zokors per day, and at most can catch around 80 in a day. There are dozens of rodent-catching teams like this on the Gannan grasslands. Jiu Jianmu, Party branch secretary of Anmao Village, Oula Township, Maqu County, carried out rodent control on his own grassland, setting a demonstration effect and guiding herders to change the notion of "not taking life."

This year, with support from the grassland rodent integrated control project in the important Yellow River water-supply ecological function area of Gannan and the grassland rodent control subsidy funds allocated by the central government, Gannan Prefecture has used botulinum toxin to control plateau pikas and bows and arrows for manual capture of plateau zokors, both through professional service teams formed by tender, carrying out professionalized control. The control area completed by professional service teams accounts for 80% of the whole prefecture, with clear control results.

"Now we use manual bow-and-arrow capture for underground pest rodents, and biological agents such as botulinum toxin and the recruitment of natural enemies to control above-ground pest rodents. By comparison, this better meets the requirements of safeguarding ecological security." This is the consensus reached throughout the grassland technology extension system.

The Hequ Grasslands, Now a World Apart from the Past

Henan County in Qinghai lies within the Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve project area, and its ecological condition is of extremely important environmental value to the whole country. Suonan Cairang, a herder on the Youganning flats, made a living by grazing for generations. In earlier years, his family's 1,800 mu of grassland suffered declining grass yields due to rodent damage, and could only support 30 cattle and 50 sheep, with annual per capita income of only 3,500 yuan, which held back improvements in living conditions. As rodent control work was carried out year after year, his family's grassland gradually recovered. He said: "Without the county's rodent control on the grasslands every year, there would be no happy life today, and we wouldn't see such good grass.

With fewer rodents, taller grass, and more income, I've even bought a car, and life gets better day by day. I wouldn't trade this fertile grassland for anything." Ashijia, Party branch secretary of Nanqi Village, said, "Technicians from the county and township animal husbandry and agriculture departments earnestly practice the mass line, staying long-term on the front lines of control, eating, living, and working alongside us, which ensures control results and strengthens ties between officials and the people. The common people all welcome them very much!"

Herder Gongbao Nanjie lives at the foot of Liqiaru Mountain and makes a living by grazing. Because his home is at a mountain pass, severe rodent damage in the past caused grassland degradation, with wind stirring up sand, affecting daily life, and with no other source of income he also worried about the marriages of his two sons. The county Party committee and county government made the grassland around Gongbao Nanjie's home a pilot site for rodent control. Through concentrated eradication, combined with measures such as returning grazing land to grassland and reseeding forage, the grassland has grown full of green grass. The once clearly visible "bare" grassland is clad in green again, lush with grass and herds of cattle and sheep everywhere, and the marriages of both sons have been settled.

In response to severe grassland degradation caused by rodent damage in Jiren Village, Youganning Township, the county people's government has carried out aerial seeding of grass on 20,000 mu there.

For many years, for the sake of this grassland, the cadres and workers of the Henan County Grassland Comprehensive Professional Team have gone from field surveys to seeking good solutions, traveling year-round to the front lines of rodent eradication. Many cadres' and workers' faces have been darkened by wind and sun, and some have even developed cor pulmonale. Team leader Ma Geliang said: "With fewer rodents, the grassland will improve, and the people's lives will have hope. The Party's mass line education and practice campaign is about letting the people gain real benefits. Rodent eradication is our grassland team's own work; if rodent damage is not well controlled, we have not fulfilled our responsibility." As he spoke, his face was full of passion and full of hope. The Hequ grasslands, once riddled with "a thousand holes and a hundred wounds" from rodent damage, are now covered in lush green grass.

Starting from Herders' Interests

Abag Banner in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is one of the areas with severe grassland rodent damage in Xilin Gol League. This year, the area affected by grassland rodent damage in the entire banner was 2.8 million mu. After the disaster occurred, the Xilin Gol League Grassland Work Station, guided by the idea of "considering the interests of farmers and herders," urgently dispatched 6 large poison-bait spreading machines to Abag Banner. After receiving word of the disaster, the Abag Banner Grassland Station immediately conducted field surveys on the grasslands, controlling a total of 1.73 million mu of grassland rodent damage, recovering 15.55 million yuan in economic losses to forage grass, benefiting more than 120 herder households and more than 400 people. "After we herders reported the situation, the grassland station immediately sent people over to inspect the disaster and carry out control, which both protected our grasslands and benefited us herders," said Haobishalatu, a herder from Bayin Xili Gacha in Abag Banner, with satisfaction.

This year, Xilin Gol League newly purchased 5 rodent poison-bait spreading machines to strengthen the development of professional grassland rodent control service teams. Ordos City drew 8 technicians to form 2 technical groups responsible for citywide technical guidance, training, and consultation on grassland rodent eradication. Alagedai, 53, grassland station head of Urad Middle Banner in Bayannur City and a recipient of the region-wide May 1 Labor Medal, led all station staff deep into the front lines of the rodent disaster in sumu (townships) including Xin Hure, Wulan Chaolu, Hailiutu, and Bayin Wulan, overcoming adverse weather such as strong winds and dust storms, bringing knowledge and explaining techniques to farmers and herders, and silently doing extraordinary things in an ordinary post. Through carrying out the "Grassland Rodent Eradication and Disaster Reduction" campaign, grassland departments at all levels in Inner Mongolia thought what herders thought and worried what herders worried, carefully and thoroughly identifying problems, genuinely changing their ways of thinking, work style, and service methods, solving prominent problems encountered by farmers and herders in production practice, and bringing farmers and herders real, tangible benefits.