Demonstration farms to improve grassland and household incomes in western China

Western China is the less developed area of China, of which about 3.31×109 ha is grassland. The livelihoods 40 million people, the majority ethnic minorities, are supported by this grassland. To achieve ba-lanced growth while reducing economic disparities is one of the major challenges that China faces to maintain both its current GDP growth rate and social stability. The development of demonstration farms is an efficient way to alleviate or ideally to solve this challenge. Recent studies conducted on the desert steppe in Inner Mongolia have shown, that under current conditions, stocking rates can be reduced to get both healthier grass-lands and economic profits. Promotion of demonstration farms to herders is a problem, and work needs to be conducted to make them more accepted and popular in the future.