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Green, Green Grass at Home
April 15, 2001
Cherry blossom in DC are bit late than usual this year because the weather was not warm enough. During the few days when there is sunshine, residents in the Capital area find themselves already in Summer. High temperatures have pushed all the trees to show their life-thrilling green on top, not to say that the Mall is already green. What a beautiful sight! If we were living on pasture or plains land at this time, we would definitely be excited to see what nature generously bestows upon us.
Pasture/plains dwellers, particularly those with thousands of sheep or goats are more than delighted to see spring after winter as their domesticated animals will finally have enough nutritious forages. To many Inner Mongolians, however, this year has not been the cause of such ritual celebration. The green is much less while their properties (heads of animals) have greatly shrunk.
What happened? It was caused by the heavy snowstorms of winter. Did they not have any heavy snowstorms before? Yes, they did have but the snow storms were not the same as before. Usually, when snow flakes fall on sheeps, for instance, they can easily shake the snow off. But, when the snow storms come together with sand, they become disasters.
Sand and snow mingle and penetrate into the animals' fur. As a result, there is increased weight that gradually prevents the sheep from moving until they are finally buried alive and hungry in snow. Therefore, many Inner Mongolians have become almost penniless. Why not provide animal shelters? Because, their traditional way of raising sheep is to set the sheep loose and let them graze in pasture wherever there is grass. Unfortunately, the destruction of pasture land by greedy fellow-Mongolians for licorice-a Chinese herb (see article of Jan. 27, "B & W").
Why not to raise the sheep inside shelters? Yes, there were a few who had done this but they also encountered a shortage of forage because of the same destruction.
Under present circumstances, the development of lawn grass (for soil conservation), either in terms of value, personnel, or planting area, is increasing in PRC at a rate as high as 20-30 % annually.
As far as forage is concerned, the demand will be increased, in ten years time, to 20,000K mts. Farmers have already learned that the profit in growing alfalfa is much much higher than in growing other produces, even though their processing equipment- for such as packing, drying, or protein retention- is poor Once equipment and technology are improved, farmers profit could be doubled or tripled.
The opportunity in grass farming or industries, in PRC, at present is unprecedentedly immense. If you are interested in any items therein, please contact us.
E-mail: VJCHANG@hotmail.com
Tel/Fax USA : (301) 438-7439
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