Impact of grassland animal husbandry on agricultural structure adjustmentin the Qinglong County, Guizhou Province

Grassland animal husbandry influences the ecological restoration and plays an effective role in the regional economic development. A field survey was carried out to investigate the impact of grassland animal husbandry on land use, farming, animal husbandry, and output value of farming, forestry and animal husbandry in Qinglong County of Guizhou Province. This study showed that grassland animal husbandry effectively promoted the adjustment of agricultural structure. Firstly, grassland animal husbandry encouraged land use structure to change from sloping cropland to pasture. Secondly, grassland animal husbandry reduced the land area of crop production and increased the land area of feed production, and the area ratio of crop land, cash crop land and feed land changed from 166∶29∶1 in 2000 to 3.6∶1∶1.2 in 2008. Thirdly, animal feeding systems were found to have moved from consumption of grainbased feedstuffs to grainsaving, indicating that the average annual growth rate of sheep was 3.38 times greater than pigs, and the pasture increased from 0.5 thousand ha in 2001 to 14.7 thousand ha in 2009, and improved grassland increased from zero to 10 thousand ha. Lastly, obvious output value changes of farming, forestry and animal husbandry were founded in this study, and livestock production accounted for 43.53 % of agricultural GDP, which increased by 12.5% when compared to it in 2000.