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of the average annual rainfall was 273 mm, which was appropriate for the use of
ridge-furrow with film-mulching (Liu et al. 2014a). With the application of ridge-
furrow with film-mulching, maize yield could reach to 6–9 t ha−^1 , 80–100 % more
than conventional uncovered cultivation in the region with an annual precipitation
of 300–400 mm; and reach to 9–12 t ha−^1 , 30–80 % more than conventional uncov-
ered cultivation in the region with an annual precipitation of 400–600 mm (Li et al.
2009 ; Ye and Liu 2012 ). With the increase of precipitation and temperature, the
yield-increasing rate of film-mulching decreased gradually, reaching to 10–30 % in
the region with an annual precipitation of 550–600 mm (Ye and Liu 2012 ). In the
region with better conditions of water and heat, the black film could avoid unwanted
increase in temperature, resulting in better increasing effect of maize yield than
transparent film (Wang and Li 2011 ; Lu et al. 2016 ).
4 Grassland Productivity and Development of Animal
Husbandry
China dryland agriculture lies mainly in hilly regions, where rainfall is concentrated
mainly in summer and autumn, frequently with heavy rains, which is prone to seri-
ous soil erosion. Historically, with the increasing of population, in order to solve the
food shortage, natural vegetation clearance had been continued for thousands of
years. Overgrazing and firewood collection were also among the major direct
anthropogenic factors responsible for destruction of vegetation cover and causing
soil erosion. In order to maintain and increasing the vegetation coverage and to
control soil erosion, governments and scientists are advocating to promote grass-
land animal husbandry (Ren and Chang 2009 ; Zhang 2010 ). Through the establish-
ment of artificial grasslands and restoration of native vegetation, grassland
productivity is extended to be improved. It has been hoped that with development in
livestock sector, it may increase the income of local people, and thereby may
improve the living standards of the local people with increased vegetation, soil and
water conservation at the same time (Ren and Lin 2009 ). Since the 1980s, the
Chinese government and the scientific communities have made great efforts to
achieve this objective. Breeding new grass varieties, improving grassland manage-
ments and reseeding grassland were applied in the vast of grassland in China.
Meanwhile, international collaborations, foreign experts’ technical support and the
World Bank special funding were supplied to reach this goal. However, the objec-
tive is still hard to achieve with nearly 30 years’ implementation of the project, and
lots of effort with little success, since the 1980s to the first decade of the twenty-first
century (Yang et al. 2001 ; Shan and Xu 2009 ).
Raising cattle and sheep is one major part of animal husbandry in the dryland
agriculture area of China. To increase vegetation cover and animal husbandry devel-
opment, people have been trying to develop artificial grassland. There is a consen-
sus that grazing domestic animals on natural grasslands in hilly areas leads to the
F.-M. Li et al.