Valuable experience for sustainable agricultural development in arid regions
By Li Yuheng | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2026-10-23 15:07
Share Share - WeChat
CLOSE
A shepherd tends a flock of sheep in Engebei, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, in December 2024. LIU GUOXING/FOR CHINA DAILY
In July 2007, central and western Inner Mongolia went 40 consecutive days without effective rainfall. Nearly 2 million mu (about 133,000 hectares) of dry farmland in Ulaanqab saw crops fail completely, forcing farmers to drive their cattle and sheep from place to place looking for pasture.
This was how Xinhua News Agency described the drought in northern China that year. It also captured what the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, a major farming and pastoral region in northern China, had been struggling with for decades: drought once almost every year, extensive cultivation often leading to meager harvests, and an agricultural produce that seemed to forever depend on the weather.
As a provincial-level region spanning the greatest east-west distance in China, Inner Mongolia has 174 million mu of arable land and is an important grain production base as well as a major grassland livestock-producing region. However, drought and poor rainfall, soil salinization and alkalization, black soil degradation and inadequate agricultural infrastructure have long constrained agricultural development there.
At the beginning of the 21st century, medium- and low-yield farmland accounted for about 60 percent of the region's total arable land. Grain output fell from 15.75 million metric tons in 1998 to 12.42 million tons in 2000, a decline of more than 20 percent in just three years, while the incomes of farmers and herders remained unstable.
Arable land is the foundation of agriculture and the bottom line of food security. Since the end of the 20th century, China has launched a series of programs to improve medium- and low-yield farmland and carry out land consolidation. Inner Mongolia, too, embarked on a journey to protect its farmland and strengthen agricultural infrastructure.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, China has consistently pursued the food crop production strategy based on farmland management and technological application. It has continued to develop high-standard farmland, addressing weaknesses in irrigation, field roads and other infrastructure.
At the same time, it has promoted improved crop varieties, intelligent agricultural machinery and smart farming equipment, providing Inner Mongolia with a clear policy direction and institutional support for systematically strengthening long-term farmland protection and upgrading agricultural infrastructure.
Governments at all levels across the region have taken the initiative to fulfill their responsibilities, tightened accountability for farmland protection and pooled various sources of agricultural funding. Farmers and herders, meanwhile, have responded actively and participated in joint efforts to protect and manage farmland. Together, they have built a strong line of defense for farmland protection in Inner Mongolia and injected sustained momentum into the growth of grain production capacity.
Today's fields in Inner Mongolia have long left behind the old pattern of extensive cultivation, low yield and dependence on weather. They have embraced a new era of sustainable agricultural development in arid regions.