Abstract
BackgroundGrassland degradation caused by overgrazing poses a threat to both animal husbandry and environmental sustainability in most semi-arid areas especially north China. Although the Chinese Government has made huge efforts to restore degraded grasslands, a considerable attempt has unfortunately failed due to an inadequate consideration of economic benefits to local communities.Methodology/Principal FindingsA controlled field experiment was conducted to test our hypothesis that utilizing natural grasslands as both habitat and feed resources for chickens and replacing the traditional husbandry system with chicken farming would increase environmental sustainability and raise income. Aboveground plant biomass elevated from 25 g m−2 for grazing sheep to 84 g m−2 for chicken farming. In contrast to the fenced (unstocked) grassland, chicken farming did not significantly decrease aboveground plant biomass, but did increase the root biomass by 60% (p<0.01). Compared with traditional sheep grazing, chicken farming significantly improved soil surface water content (0–10 cm), from 5% to 15%. Chicken farming did not affect the soil bulk density, while the traditional sheep grazing increased the soil bulk density in the 0–10 cm soil layer by 35% of the control (p<0.05). Most importantly, the economic income of local herdsmen has been raised about six times compared with the traditional practice of raising sheep. Ecologically, such an innovative solution allowed large degraded grasslands to naturally regenerate. Grasslands also provided a high quality organic poultry product which could be marketed in big cities.Conclusion/SignificanceChicken farming is an innovative alternative strategy for increasing environmental sustainability and economic income, rather than a challenge to the traditional nomadic pastoral system. Our approach might be technically applicable to other large degraded grasslands of the world, especially in China.
Highlights
The implementation of ‘Reform and Opening up’ in 1978 achieved exceptional economic growth in China
The importance value index of plant communities The grazing treatment did not affect the number of species in plant communities, it had a statistically significant impact on the importance value index (IVI) of several major families
Chicken fed with corn significantly increased the Importance Value Index (IVI) of Poaceae (p,0.05), whereas those fed with both insects and corn enhanced the IVI of Brassicaceae (Fig. 1), implying the selective foraging of animals, i.e., chicken vs sheep, and that a protein supplement in the form of insects changed chicken foraging behaviour
Summary
The implementation of ‘Reform and Opening up’ in 1978 achieved exceptional economic growth in China. In the semi-arid areas of north China, sandstorms rank among the most serious environmental problems, posing threats to both animal husbandry and social sustainability [2]. Years of overgrazing have led to remarkable grassland degradation in north China, causing further ecological disasters such as the blooming of insect pests, appearance of sandstorms or light wind-borne dust clouds in China and neighboring countries such as Korea and Japan [6,7,8,9]. Grassland degradation caused by overgrazing poses a threat to both animal husbandry and environmental sustainability in most semi-arid areas especially north China. The Chinese Government has made huge efforts to restore degraded grasslands, a considerable attempt has failed due to an inadequate consideration of economic benefits to local communities
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