How do herders do well? Profitability potential of livestock grazing in Inner Mongolia, China, across ecosystem types
Ping Li A E F , Joleen C. Hadrich B F , Brian E. Robinson C , Yulu Hou D , Yating Dai A and Xiangyang Hou A E
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Institute of Grassland Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science/Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecology and Restoration, Ministry of Agriculture, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia 010010, China.
B Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108-6040, USA.
C McGill University, Department of Geography, Montreal, QC H3A 0B9, Canada.
D Institute of Agricultural Information, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China.
E Corresponding authors. Email: lipingcau@126.com; houxy16@126.com
F These authors contributed equally to the paper.
The Rangeland Journal 40(1) 77-90 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ17100
Submitted: 5 October 2017 Accepted: 2 March 2018 Published: 22 March 2018
Abstract
Livestock production has increased in Inner Mongolia, China, despite widespread documentation of grassland degradation. To begin investigating the relationship that produces these trends, we studied farm-level decisions of herder households. We estimated economic enterprise budgets for 15 counties in Inner Mongolia across five ecosystems in 2009 and 2014 by using household survey data. Six counties decreased livestock stocking rates and had improved profit over time. The remaining counties increased their stocking rates over the period studied and profit decreased for all but one county. Livestock operators who reported negative profit over the 5 years were located across ecosystem types and reported a large number of weather shocks that affected grassland availability. Removing the opportunity cost of land and labour from the economic enterprise budgets resulted in a positive profit for all counties, which may explain why herders continue to increase stocking rates with decreased grassland availability over time.
Additional keywords: financial, grazing, semi-arid area.
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