The grass industry needs to become a few shades greener; green development remains a long and demanding task

Recently, the "Grass-Livestock Experimental Zone" jointly built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Inner Mongolia Hulunbuir State Farm Group has drawn the attention of the political, business and academic circles. Industry insiders believe that the grass-livestock industry is an important way for farmers to increase their income, an important part of the structural reform of the agricultural supply side, and an important measure for ecological civilization construction. Though the autumn grass has turned yellow, the recognition from all sectors still brings a few shades of green to the grass industry.

In today's era when many industrial and agricultural products are in surplus, it is precisely a blade of grass that has become a scarce commodity. Adjusting the agricultural structure to raise the share of animal husbandry offers a broad market for forage and feed; many mountains and rivers have sparse vegetation and long for more little grass companions to "spread to the ends of the earth"; "white disasters" and "black disasters" and other natural calamities occur frequently, calling on the grass industry to make up for the fragility of the production base of animal husbandry; ornamental lawns and green sports fields in cities test the high-end supply capacity of the grass industry... The grass industry has broad room for development, but to face the new tests under the new situation, the grass industry still needs to work on the following aspects to keep "adding green."

Vegetation restoration of natural grassland is the main battlefield for the development of the grass industry. Anyone who has lived in pastoral areas knows that "animal husbandry" oriented toward livestock numbers emphasizes livestock over grass; overloading and overgrazing not only leads to a decline in livestock numbers but also severely damages the vitality of the grassland. On the contrary, only a "grass-livestock industry" oriented toward the grass industry can bring a virtuous cycle of production, livelihood and ecology. In addition to measures for balancing grass and livestock such as banning grazing, resting grazing and rotational grazing, since 2011 China has fully implemented the grassland ecological protection subsidy and reward policy in Inner Mongolia and other grassland pastoral provinces. This policy, which benefits herders greatly, is in fact also a policy that encourages the development of the grass industry. Continuing to raise standards and expand coverage for grassland ecological rewards and subsidies, and achieving grass-livestock balance at a high level, has become an important part of "greening" the grass industry.

Cultivated grass planting has become a new growth point for the development of the grass industry. In addition to increasing a certain proportion of forage and feed area within the cultivated land sown area, building feed bases on the grassland is also a realistic choice for developing the grass industry. Facts have proven that if herders set aside 5% of the grassland for high-yield forage cultivation and on this basis rationally use the remaining 95% of the grassland, they can basically achieve grass-livestock balance and keep herders' living standards rising steadily.

Of course, the development of the grass industry cannot be separated from the support of scientific and technological progress. Turning scientific research results into productivity is an inevitable choice for the grass industry to achieve leapfrog development. In Inner Mongolia and other places, leading grass enterprises closely connected with research institutes have already emerged, and Mengcao Group is a prominent representative among them. On the basis of serving as a grassland restoration operator, such enterprises process grass products, bringing benefits to the development of the grass industry.