Area-Wide Integration of Crop and Livestock:
Case Study Beijing

K.E. Bingsheng

Research Centre for Rural Economy,Ministry of Agriculture,
NongZhan Guan Nan Li, Beijing 100026, China.

Introduction

The demand of livestock products in China is surging due to its population growth, urbanisation and increase in income. Increasingly, this demand is met by industrial-type production systems in urban or peri-urban environments. Such systems are associated with waste production that results in escalating environmental and health problems.

Traditionally, livestock activities in China have been closely integrated with crop production. Except for the pasture systems in the grassland, most animals are still raised in backyards. Compared with developed countries, the intensive livestock system in China emerged just a decade ago and is confined to limited regions. Attendant problems with the intensive system have been increasingly recognised, but there is still a lack of experience in addressing the problems both technically as well as in policy regulations.

This report discusses the driving forces for the development of the intensive livestock sector in the suburbs of Beijing, the environmental problems associated with it, the various measures being taken or tried to address the problems, and the possible future trend in area-wide integration of crop and livestock activities in the region.

Driving Forces for Demand of Livestock Products

Demand for livestock products in Beijing increased dramatically following the increase in per capita consumption over the past decade (Table 1).

Table 1. Annual per capita consumption of livestock products in Beijing

At the same time, per capita income for both urban and rural populations has risen ten-fold over the past 15 years. The average real income growth was estimated to be 5.2% annually for rural and 5.3% for urban residents. This is the primary driving force for the dramatic expansion in livestock demand.

Another reason for the increase in demand is that the population in Beijing increased at a rate of 3.8% annually for the past 15 years to nearly 16 million today. The natural population growth has been estimated to be less than 1%, therefore, the increase is mainly due to migration e.g. workers and tourists.

It is apparent that total meat demand developed very rapidly as a combined result of population growth and increased income. The demand for meat increases at an annual rate of 9% and this exerts a tremendous pressure on local production to attain self-sufficiency. It is estimated that the current adjusted self-sufficiency of meat in Beijing is around 60%.

Development of the Livestock Sector

Meat, milk and egg production

Livestock production in Beijing has expanded in tandem with the rapid growth in demand for livestock products (Table 2). Pork production has almost doubled, but it has the lowest growth compared with other meat categories, notably poultry meat which has increased 3.7 times and beef which has increased 12 times over the past ten years (Table 2).

Table 2. Growth of livestock production in Beijing from 1985 to 1995

Inventory and technology

The rapid growth in livestock production in Beijing has been achieved jointly and influenced equally by increased animal inventory and improved production technology.

Over a decade, swine inventory has increased moderately by 60% while broilers have increased 5 times and beef cattle, 6 times. There is only a slight growth in the number of layers and the number of all types of work animals has declined sharply to around one third or half.

The introduction of high-yielding animal species and modern feed processing are among the most important factors of technical progress. The application of new technologies has been possible due largely to changes in the production structure i.e. from backyard operations to large-scale and intensive production systems.

Production structure

There are 3 types of farm ownership in Beijing viz. state farms, collective farms and individual farms. State and collective farms are generally large-scale operations while most individual farms operate as backyard activities. There is a tendency for the production structure to change from backyard operations to intensified, large-scale farms.

Swine

There was a very evident trend in swine production beginning in the late 1980's that swayed production from individual farms to intensive, large-scale operations in state and collective farms. Individual farms contributed to 84% of total swine population in mid-1980 but this number declined to a third today. The decline in individual farm activities was due to pressure of opportunity costs resulting from economic development and industrialisation. This brought about a worrisome, widening gap in supply and demand for pork and the local government had to focus on increasing production at the state and collective farm levels. The success in this switch of production structure was helped by the robust development of the feed processing industry that significantly increased feed-cost efficiency. However, the significant increase in production of meat from intensive, large-scale state and collective farms had come with a price - environmental pollution as well as heavy subsidy burden on the government budget.

Poultry

For layers, a similar shift from individual farm production to large-scale operations was also evident in the last decade. However, a different trend was shown for broilers where individual farms showed dramatic increases in broiler inventory from 1985-1995. In 1995, the increase in the number of broilers held by individual farms was 52% compared with 33% and 15% for collective and state farms respectively.

Dairy cattle

During pre-reform time, all the dairy cattle in Beijing were raised by state and collective farms. Individual farmers were not allowed to raise large animals, with the exception of the Northwest and Southwest nomadic regions where each household was permitted to rear one or two heads for family needs. This changed in the early 1980's, and in 1995 individual farm ownership accounted for 15% of the total dairy cattle inventory in Beijing. The state farms still predominate with 61%, but dairy cattle in collective farms have diminished significantly in recent years.

Policy and Institutional Changes

The changes in development trend of livestock production in Beijing have been brought about by extensive policy interventions. There are at least 3 policy goals implemented out of concerns for regional food security and price stability, sanitation and health, and budget.

Regional food security has been the top policy consideration. In the past, shortage of food in Beijing was easily resolved through supplies from neighbouring provinces, which consider the delivery to be a political obligation. However, with the reform policy introduced in the late 1970's, the food trade relationship with Beijing was based more on market forces and price incentives. Furthermore, with the dramatic increase in demand for livestock products, a widening shortfall was evident in Beijing. This has led to increased local government support and subsidy to develop intensive livestock production systems at state and collective farms in Beijing. Price stability too had almost similar political significance as food security goal. This was achieved through price control regulation (ceiling price) and subsidies to reduce production and marketing costs. These steps are easy to implement given that the dominant market stakeholders i.e. state and collective farms are government owned.

Another reason for the local government to invest in large-scale intensive operations is for the production of lean, quality meat which backyard farms cannot manage. The backyard farms were used to producing meat with thick fat in the past and cannot adapt to the new market for healthier, lean meat.

Environmental Problems from Livestock Production

The rapid development of livestock production, especially with the advent of intensive, industrial farms, has escalated environmental problems, notably foul odour and pollution of soil and water through indiscriminate disposal of animal wastes. The pollution of ground water is exacerbated by the leaching of large amounts of chemical fertilisers used in croplands.

Different types of livestock pose different degrees of environmental problems and difficulties in solution. Waste from cattle has the least problem because it is not foul smell and its use as organic manure is popular. Likewise, poultry waste is also easy to deal with because of its solid nature and high nutrient content, which is suitable for organic fertiliser. Swine waste, however, is the most difficult to treat, transport and use, and is regarded as the most serious threat to environment and health. In most pig-farming operations, the common method to clear swine waste is through flushing the pens with water. The liquid waste contains over 90% water and is difficult to transport and treat. It usually finds its way to open areas where it seeps into the ground water or drains directly into canals.

The environmental problems escalate with the scale and intensity of farm operations, ranging from the least worrisome in backyard farms to highly threatening in large-scale collective and state farms. In backyard operations, the pollution problem is internalised and the waste, often minimal, is used as organic manure for crop cultivation. The main complaint about backyard farms is the foul odour, which is more pronounced during the hot and humid summer. On the other hand, the amount of waste from large farms and its disposal is at times unmanageable, although its direct effect on residents is not immediately felt because most of the farms are located some distance away from residential areas.

Efforts to Address Environmental Problems

Local leaders, professionals and farmers are increasingly concerned about the environmental problems associated with the development of the intensive livestock sector in Beijing. Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture has helped the Beijing government to establish the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Institute of Livestock. This Institute is responsible for setting up regulations and standards for measuring pollution severity caused by the livestock industry.

The following efforts have also been made by local governments and farmers with some degree of success, but none seemed to be completely satisfactory.

Relocation

Some livestock farms previously established in the vicinity of villages have been relocated after development and expansion of the villages brought them very close to these farms. An important consideration for the choice of area for relocation is the proximity of it to fruit orchards or wheat fields where the liquid wastes can be pumped directly to the crops as fertilisers.

Waste treatments

The most common and rather primitive treatment for flushed-out liquid waste is to use a sump to let the waste sediments settle and pump the water on top for irrigation or drained into nearby ditches. The sediments are removed from time to time for composting. In smaller operations where the waste is reasonably dry, it can be directly composted and used for organic fertilisers. An experimental equipment is also being tried for separation of water and solids in liquid wastes.

Fresh chicken wastes can also be dried by heat and these form good organic fertilisers or animal feed. The desiccation is also a sterilisation process and foul odour is also removed. The biggest constraint to this treatment is that the poor condition of drinking-water system for the chicken may leak water into the waste collected below and cause it to be sticky and difficult to sweep off. Under such circumstances, workers find it easier to flush out the waste, resulting in a liquid waste which faced the same problems as that of swine waste.

Utilisation of waste for energy

Utilisation of waste through fermentation to generate methane as an energy source is a traditional way to treat waste in China. Although there are reports on the success of both large-scale and household operations, this practice is not widely adopted. The costs of initial investment, maintenance and operation coupled with frequent breakdowns during the long cold seasons and the inconvenience and instability of methane are common reasons for not adopting this technology.

The conventional household pig-raising and methane-generating system has been extended to include vegetable production in greenhouses. This new practice, known as `4 in 1' is so called because it incorporates the effects of livestock production, pollution reduction, energy generation for warming the greenhouse, as well as supply of fertiliser for the vegetables.

In summary, various efforts have been made by local governments and livestock farms to address the environmental problems associated with livestock production in the suburbs of Beijing. However, due to various constraints, including those pertaining to natural conditions, and technological, economic and social feasibility, none of the existing technologies seems to have provided easy, satisfactory and sustainable solutions to the problems. These problems will still remain as great challenges ahead.

Concluding Remarks

In conclusion, the demand of livestock products in Beijing has risen dramatically in the recent two decades, especially since the mid-1980's following rapid population growth, urbanisation and soaring income. In order to have sufficient livestock products supplied to the urban population and avoid possible social and political instability in Beijing, great efforts have been made to promote local livestock production. A large number of big commercial livestock farms have been set up with government subsidies. The density of livestock inventory increased dramatically, escalating the attendant pollution problems which are increasingly worrisome to local residents and policy makers.

Various efforts have been made in the past decade to manage livestock waste. However, none of them appears to have achieved satisfactory and sustainable success. It seems that the awareness of environmental pollution is high among farmers, village leaders and policy makers at the municipal government, but low for decision-makers at county and township levels.

Policy recommendations to combat environmental pollution from livestock wastes include enhancing waste treatment and relocation (decentralise) of livestock production. To enhance waste treatment, more efforts in research and analysis are needed. Different techniques and their technological feasibility as well as socio-economic acceptability should be systematically examined and evaluated. The lack or failure of careful evaluation seems to be the major reason for the unsuccessful adoption of certain technologies. More strict regulations on pollution control should be imposed to internalise the costs of environmental management. This is of special importance as the large livestock farms are being privatised. Public support to waste treatment investment should be continued, but in a wiser and efficient way.

In the long run, efforts should be made to relocate livestock production to remote counties to enable a better integration of crop and livestock activities. Measures should be taken to encourage decentralisation of livestock production or, at least, to stop further concentration process. With more market-oriented reforms, these structural changes will take place even without governmental interventions. In the process of market liberalisation, more and more large livestock farms in the vicinity of Beijing will be expected to close in face of the increasingly fierce competition of cheap meat supply from neighbouring provinces.