The economic benefits of integrated farming system in the transitional region from Loess Plateau to Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau—A case study of Tongwei-Weiyuan-Xiahe transect

Abstract

The region between the Loess Plateau and the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is an important ecological zone in China which is located in the transition zone of continental plate from the second step terrain to the first step terrain. The local people in the area mainly depend on crops, livestock and crop and livestock integration. The crop and livestock integration is strongly interrelated to ecological characteristics of the region and the human activities. In this study we investigated the key factors for economic benefits of farming systems and social structure along a transect of the region; Tongwei (TW), Weiyuan (WY) and Xiahe (XH). The data for the study was obtained by the statistical year book of China. The key factors for input and output of different crop production systems and livestock systems were used for the study. We used Logistic regression model to examine the relationship of proportion of farmers in the population and the productivity of the faming system (based on input vs output). We found a significant correlation between proportion of farmers and the farmer productivity ( P WY (12.65×103 ¥/farm) > XH (−2.68×103 ¥/farm). Livestock production system: The total inputs for livestock farming and the natural grassland area increased east to west of the region. The total output was intermediate in WY. The economic benefits of different livestock systems were: pig (0.14×103 ¥/farm), sheep (1.84×103 ¥/farm) and cattle (32.79×103 ¥/farm) in TW, WY and XH respectively. Integrated production system: The response rates of proportion of farmers to input were 1.30, 0.61 and 0.70 for XH, TW and WY respectively. In contrast, the response rates of proportion of farmers to output were 0.085, 0.17, and 0.37 in XH, TW and WY. The threshold value for economic benefits and the proportion of farmers remained 50%. The economic benefits of the three study areas were: XH (30.27×103 ¥/farm) >TW (20.22×103 ¥/farm)>WY (13.07×103 ¥/farm). When the proportion of farmers were above the threshold point, the inputs of TW, WY and XH increased 45.76%, 47.98% and 45.60% respectively, and the output increased 43.20%, 42.60% and 45.60% respectively. The economic benefits at the threshold points were 30.52, 16.32 and 64.70×103 ¥/farm in TW, WY and XH respectively. The natural resources and agricultural population varied east to west of the study transect and the farming systems changed cropping to grazing. Labor was the largest input in all production systems. Our study indicates that regulating and controlling the proportion of farmers is an effective measure to realize the ″win-win″ scenario of economic and ecological benefits. We found that compared to crop production systems, the livestock production system and integration of crop and livestock are effective means of improving agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability and farmers′ income.