21.
Lessons From China
For India’s Mao Zedongs
On The True Cost of Livestock Farming
Desertification is a major national issue in China and it is largely caused by bad policies. Situation is so serious that The Gobi desert has grown by 52,400 square kilometers, an area half the size of Pennsylvania, between 1994 and 1999, and continues to advance at a rate of two miles a year and is now only 240 kilometers or so from Beijing.
In western China the huge Taklimakan and Kumtag deserts are expanding at such a high rate they are expected to merge in the not too distant future. Two deserts in Inner Mongolia and Gansu Province are also in the process of reaching each other and merging.
The Chengdu plain, one of China’s primary grain-growing areas, is threatened by sands from the Ruoergai grasslands. The grasslands were a rich grazing areas until a few decades ago when cows and goats began to multiply and overgraze the land. There is danger that a dust bowl situation could develop. Already wells have dried up and emergency grain supplies have to be brought in to keep people from starving. Many people are being encouraged to move to more hospitable lands.
The grassland has been likened to the thin skin on a bun. It can be destroyed if a couple of centimeters is disturbed. One Mongolian said, “Our elders used to say we should never cultivate the grassland.”
In western China the huge Taklimakan and Kumtag deserts are expanding at such a high rate they are expected to merge in the not too distant future. Two deserts in Inner Mongolia and Gansu Province are also in the process of reaching each other and merging.
The Chengdu plain, one of China’s primary grain-growing areas, is threatened by sands from the Ruoergai grasslands. The grasslands were a rich grazing areas until a few decades ago when cows and goats began to multiply and overgraze the land. There is danger that a dust bowl situation could develop. Already wells have dried up and emergency grain supplies have to be brought in to keep people from starving. Many people are being encouraged to move to more hospitable lands.
The grassland has been likened to the thin skin on a bun. It can be destroyed if a couple of centimeters is disturbed. One Mongolian said, “Our elders used to say we should never cultivate the grassland.”
Overgrazing
Poor land use and overgrazing are causing large areas of grasslands north of Beijing and in Inner Mongolia and Qinghai province to turn into a desert. One man who lived in a village on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau that was being swallowed up by sand told the New York Times, "The pasture here used to be so green and rich. But now the grass is disappearing and the sand is coming.”
Increased livestock pressure on marginal lands has accelerated desertification. In some areas, nomads moving to less arid areas disrupt the local ecosystem and increase the rate of erosion of the land. Nomads are trying to escape the desert, but because of their land-use practices, they are bringing the desert with them.
Huge flocks of sheep and goats strip the land of vegetation. In Xillinggol Prefecture in Inner Mongolia, for example, the livestock population increased from 2 million in 1977 to 18 million in 2000, turning one third of the grassland area to desert. Unless something is done the entire prefecture could be uninhabitable by 2020.
Overgrazing is exacerbated by a sociological phenomena called "the tragedy of the common." People share land but raise animals for themselves and try to enrich themselves by raising as many as they can. This leads to more animals than the land can support. One grassland in Qinghai that can support 3.7 million sheep had 5.5 million sheep in 1997
Animals remove the vegetation and winds finish the job by blowing away the top soil, transforming grasslands into desert.
To reduce the number of animals the government is encouraging herders to cut the size of their flocks by 40 percent, relocate and stall-feed their animals.
Increased livestock pressure on marginal lands has accelerated desertification. In some areas, nomads moving to less arid areas disrupt the local ecosystem and increase the rate of erosion of the land. Nomads are trying to escape the desert, but because of their land-use practices, they are bringing the desert with them.
Huge flocks of sheep and goats strip the land of vegetation. In Xillinggol Prefecture in Inner Mongolia, for example, the livestock population increased from 2 million in 1977 to 18 million in 2000, turning one third of the grassland area to desert. Unless something is done the entire prefecture could be uninhabitable by 2020.
Overgrazing is exacerbated by a sociological phenomena called "the tragedy of the common." People share land but raise animals for themselves and try to enrich themselves by raising as many as they can. This leads to more animals than the land can support. One grassland in Qinghai that can support 3.7 million sheep had 5.5 million sheep in 1997
Animals remove the vegetation and winds finish the job by blowing away the top soil, transforming grasslands into desert.
To reduce the number of animals the government is encouraging herders to cut the size of their flocks by 40 percent, relocate and stall-feed their animals.
Now by your talent, you are producing nice food, but producing food, tilling the ground some way or other, by machine or by this way... But there must be rain, and so many other conditions. But time will come when there will be no rain. Then what you will do with your tractor and machine? You’ll have to eat the tractor. (laughter) That’s all.
-Prabhupada (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.16.22 -- Hawaii, January 18, 1974)
Migration and Resettlement
Desertification is causing millions of rural Chinese to abandon unproductive land in Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Provinces and migrate eastward. A study by the Asian Development Bank found 4,000 villages at risk of being swallowed up by drifting sand.
Already a migration on the scale of the Dust Bowl in the United States in the 1930 is taking place in China. The only problem is that in China there is no California to escape to. Many of those driven off land degreded by desertification have ended up in eastern cities as migrant workers.
In parts of the Ningxia Province, significant rain has not fallen for years and farming is impossible. Tens of thousands of people from villages mostly in poor southern Ningxia have been resettled.
Already a migration on the scale of the Dust Bowl in the United States in the 1930 is taking place in China. The only problem is that in China there is no California to escape to. Many of those driven off land degreded by desertification have ended up in eastern cities as migrant workers.
In parts of the Ningxia Province, significant rain has not fallen for years and farming is impossible. Tens of thousands of people from villages mostly in poor southern Ningxia have been resettled.
Disastrous Policies
There are three events during the five-decade Communist rule in China that led to the severe desertification that we see today. These events all happened around the same time during the 60's, which were the dam projects on the Yellow River, the household irrigation system during the Cultural Revolution, and the most significantly, Mao's plan of turning grassland into farmland.
In the 1955, China's first National People's Congress approved the Soviet plan of 46 dam projects, and the Yellow River Dam was finished in 1960. The dam led to changing path of the Yellow River and disappearing of some of its tributaries, and then the grassland and farmland gradually dried up and turned into a desert.
Secondly, during the Cultural Revolution period in the late 60's, the engineers helped farmers build an irrigation system that enabled each household to divert water from the Yellow River to their individual farmland. This system helped farming; however, the more households adopted this system, the less water left to the downstream rivers. Gradually, the lands around these dried-out downstream rivers turned into desert.
In the 1955, China's first National People's Congress approved the Soviet plan of 46 dam projects, and the Yellow River Dam was finished in 1960. The dam led to changing path of the Yellow River and disappearing of some of its tributaries, and then the grassland and farmland gradually dried up and turned into a desert.
Secondly, during the Cultural Revolution period in the late 60's, the engineers helped farmers build an irrigation system that enabled each household to divert water from the Yellow River to their individual farmland. This system helped farming; however, the more households adopted this system, the less water left to the downstream rivers. Gradually, the lands around these dried-out downstream rivers turned into desert.
Lister Cheung Lai-ping said after digging "the land is then useless for growing anything else. By displacing the sand, it blows everywhere, covering houses, machinery, people... it covers everything. No other farming can be done; it's like living under snow - except it's not snow, it's sand." (BBC)
The most significant cause of the desertification came from Mao's plan of farmland expansion, which turned out to be the most damaging. Mao saw these vast areas of grassland in the north and he came up with plans to put them to good use. He relocated farmers to these grasslands who removed all the grass to grow their crops. But the grassroots in these steppes were essential to retain rainwater and soil. The roots of the crops were unable to serve such functions. Gradually the soil lost its water retention capacity and wind and water erosion set in. In no time, the area turned into a vast desert. The actual amount of grassland lost is anyone’s guess due to lack of reporting by the government controlled agencies.
The government has pledged $6.8 billion (56.8 billion Yuan) on an environmental program which includes planting multiple layers of green belt around the Gobi. In what has been described as the world’s most ambitious reforestation project, the Chinese are planting a line of trees and shrubs, paralleling the Great Wall of China, to protect farmland in northern China from Gobi Desert sand blown by the fierce Mongolian winds. Stretching from Xinjiang to Heolongjang, this “Green Wall” will eventually cover strip of land 4,000 miles in length.
The government has pledged $6.8 billion (56.8 billion Yuan) on an environmental program which includes planting multiple layers of green belt around the Gobi. In what has been described as the world’s most ambitious reforestation project, the Chinese are planting a line of trees and shrubs, paralleling the Great Wall of China, to protect farmland in northern China from Gobi Desert sand blown by the fierce Mongolian winds. Stretching from Xinjiang to Heolongjang, this “Green Wall” will eventually cover strip of land 4,000 miles in length.
You have seen desert. Desert means it requires huge quantities of water. Nowadays, practically, in every country, especially in India, every land is just like desert for want of water. So you see in Vrndavana so much land lying vacant, no agriculture. Why? There is want of water. There is no sufficient supply of water. So in this way, if there is scarcity of water, then gradually these places will be converted into desert. Converted into desert. So the "desert" word is used because it requires huge quantity of water. Similarly, we are, in this material world, we are trying to be happy in the society, friendship and love. Suta-mita-ramani-samaje. But the happiness we are getting, that is compared with a drop of water in the desert. If in the vast desert, Arabian desert, if we say that "We want water," and somebody brings a drop of water and take it, it will be very insignificant, has no meaning.
~ Srila Prabhupada (Lecture, Bhagavad-gita 9.1 -- Vrndavana, April 17, 1975)
