By Juma Mjengi
Human activities for hundreds of years have subjected ecosystem into danger and imbalance. Food production and animal husbandry as major human activities, have posed threats in the basic life support systems of land, water, flora, fauna and atmosphere. As the world population increases the demand for food elevates and the question comes on the balance between food production for livelihood and ecosystem security and productivity. To find the equilibrium, here comes the dangers and opportunities. In HulunBuir grassland ecosystem of Inner Mongolia, in China, the healthy concurrent and integration exists between food production, animal husbandry and grassland ecosystem security. In China grassland ecosystem occupies 40% of the countries vegetation and HulunBuir being the major grassland. For decades, China grasslands have been degrading due to overgrazing and conversion of grassland to farming lands. In early 1980, China changed focus and started exerting much effort on conservation of degraded grasslands merely after the inaction of China grassland law. Despite of prolonged degradation for many generation, the effort have resumed the balance between livestock production, biodiversity, conservation efforts and climate change mitigation. Moreover, grassland conservation efforts restores the ethnic identity of HulunBuir as a long historical pastoral ethnic society in China.
During my summer school research tour in Hulun Buir grassland ecosystem I was greatly amazed with unshakable link between the China government policy and support, research stations and Universities such as China Agricultural University and livestock keepers working in great cooperation to protect the grassland degradation. China government has allocated a lot of funds for researchers to investigate key grassland degradation factors, provide in-field solution of farmers challenges in experimental station, provide knowledge, cut-edge technologies used in grassland restoration and assistance to livestock farmers to ensure a healthy and equitable co-existence between livestock production and conservation efforts. Most interestingly, I was largely surprised to see the flourishing grassland in HulunBuir due to grassland ecosystem conservation efforts and matched the pastoral society economic prosperity as well as the ecosystem productivity.
China for more than 5 decades has established relationship with African countries in political, economic and technological affairs. Recently, President Xi Jiping the renewed focus through Forum of China Africa cooperation (FOCAC), has aimed to string and strengthen cooperation ties between China and Africa in various aspects of development and specifically, skills and knowledge transfer, amongst many aspects being the one of the aspect of cooperation. Most of African grasslands are heavily degraded. It very crucial for most of African countries including my country Tanzania, to adopt technologies and methods used by china to successfully restore the degraded grasslands and ensure ecosystem productivity for human livelihood. In my summer school experience I have learned very important skills and technologies used for grassland restoration which are precisely compatible for restoration of grassland in Africa.
Among successful grassland restoration techniques used by China includes controlled stocking density of livestock, prohibition grazing (fencing) where grazing plots are fenced and prohibited from grazing to recover, seasonal grazing rotation which involves grazing into the plots based on sprout seasons enabling the grasses and new seeds to regrow, reseeding or planting and incorporation of leguminous plant in grassland to ensure nutrient retention and biodiversity, supplementary feeding, fertilization, irrigation and artificial rainfall, remote sensing technology and climate simulation experiments as well as ecological monitoring and evaluation for success of conservation efforts. The collective impacts of these restoration methods and technology have resumed the productivity of HulunBuir grassland ecosystem and I recommend African countries to adopt them as part of efforts to fight against global climate change. In addition, the integration of in-field research demonstration in the experiment stations helps to equip farmers with knowledge and trainings, ease technology adoption or transfer and ensure the feedback loop between the counterparts in restoration efforts adherence and success to the government and policy makers and environmental conservationists as stakeholders.
In Tanzania, grassland occupies the central and north-western regions such as Arusha, Manyara, Singida, Simiyu, Dodoma, Tabora and Shinyanga. The grasslands in these regions are heavily degraded due to overgrazing. In these regions there is high migration of livestock keeper to south- western regions of Tanzania such as Mbeya, Katavi, Kigoma and Morogoro for search of pastures. In these region we witness farmers-livestock keeper’s conflicts owing to these migration and livestock invading farms. To resolve these I recommend adoption of grassland restoration methods used by China and have shown big success so that as a country we might reduce livestock migration to other regions, resolve the farmers-livestock keeper’s frequent conflicts, restore the grassland ecosystem healthy and its sustainability.
