Pastureland transfer as a livelihood adaptation strategy for herdsmen: a case study of Xilingol, Inner Mongolia

Abstract

The grassland is the most important resource for the herdsmen in Inner Mongolia, China. In the 1980s, pastureland was administratively allocated based on household size. The subsequent changes in socioeconomic and new household characteristics suggest that adjustment is needed for more efficient land use. This study reviewed the recent progress of the rental market and investigated the herdsmen’s behaviours regarding grassland market transactions in Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia. The economic assumption is that there exists a variation in values by household for each given parcel of land, which drives land transfer to users who can generate higher values. Each household is characterised by its initial pasture landholding, herding facilities and demographics. But the gain from the transfer must be deducted from the transaction costs, and cooperative membership can significantly reduce the transaction costs. An econometric model is developed and tested with data collected from household surveys in the Xilingol League. The results indicate that household size is the most significant variable for land transfer in the long run. Herdsmen have been dynamically adjusting herding equipment and pasture landholdings, allocating labour between herding and non-herding activities in response to these changes in society. Cooperative organisation was found to be significant in facilitating land transfer due to its role in reducing transaction costs. Higher quality land with higher rent is also found to be more likely to transfer since the percentage of the transaction cost is lower than lower quality land.

Understanding livestock production and sustainability of grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt

“…Over the past three decades, land privatization in the ADB has occurred in the form of "right to use", with ownership or lease/rent belonging to individual families. Due to the high spatial variations in soil, water, and accessibility, the nomadic grazing lifestyle is ideal but impossible to continue due to the administrative boundaries that divide and fragment the grazing landscape (Chen et al 2015b;Zhang et al 2017). Therefore, with this finite amount of water resources, families in less economically developed areas may have no choice but continue degrading the grasslands or convert them to cultivated lands in order to meet the surviving needs.…”

“…However, this tradition has begun to shift in response to a variety of changes in institutions, administrative boundaries, climate variability, urbanization, and economic development (Fernández-Giménez et al 2012;John et al 2013;Chen et al 2015a;Zhang et al 2017). With economic advances in the region and continued globalization, the demands in the ADB for livestock production have increased (Delgado 2005;Kearney 2010;FAO 2013;Fernández-Giméneza et al 2017), raising some serious questions regarding long-term sustainability, as the region has scarce water and additional resources for food production.…”

Quantifying Farmers’ Initiatives and Capacity to Cope with Drought: A Case Study of Xinghe County in Semi-Arid China

“…Due to the shortage of labor, the decreasing rate of Sustainability 2019, 11,1848 3 of 19 utilization of cultivated land in rural areas, and the fact that farmers have become more willing to lease their land to large tenants. This has resulted in widespread transfer of land in rural areas [39][40][41]. In Xinghe county, 30% of the cultivated land is concentrated in the hands of large tenants, who enjoy greater flexibility in crop planning and a more stable income than smallholders do, and are therefore better equipped to cope with economic and environmental changes [42,43].…”

Prospects for the sustainability of social-ecological systems (SES) on the Mongolian plateau: five critical issues

“…For instance, rapid land use con demographics and urbanization throughout much of IM and associated regulatory mechanisms (John et al 2009, Fernández-Giménez et al 2012 has resulted in much higher rates of land degradation compared to MG (Fernández-Giménez et al 2012, John et al 2013, Liu et al 2013, Wang et al 2013, Dangal et al 2016. There are also marked differences in economic development (Wang et al 2013, Zhang et al 2017, human demographics and urbanization patterns (Fan et al 2016, Park et al 2017, livestock population trends, and agricultural development (Fernández-Giménez et al 2012, Qi et al 2017). Furthermore, there is a major ethnographic difference between IM and MG, where MG is an independent country (with~96% of its population being ethnic Mongols) while IM is a part of China with~80% of its population being Han Chinese.…”

“…The 'grassland-livestock balance regulation' imposed a cap on livestock densities and prohibited grazing altogether on some grassland while providing payments to herders (Gao et al 2016). In addition, grassland use rights transfers, comanagement and economic cooperation among the herders were allowed and encouraged, anticipating that small land holdings would be aggregated into larger parcels held by fewer, more capable herders who would manage more sustainably (Zhang et al 2017). These policies seem to have had some positive effects on grassland conditions (Li et al 2018), but have contributed to a reduction in pastoral mobility and loss of nomadic culture (Zhang et al 2007).…”