Fodder Crop Production for Conservation as Winter Feed and Technology Transfer from Pakistan to N.w. China and North Vietnam

Livestock production by transhumance rearing systems is the major land use and a source of livelihood in most areas of the arid, semiarid, and arid temperate agro-ecological zones of Asia. It is perhaps the best way of exploiting these pastures economically. Lack of feed is the major constraint to improving livestock production during winter and early spring, as the temperatures are extremely low during which the pregnant breeding stock is very vulnerable. For the last ten years, the Altay prefecture in China has undertaken an ambitious and impressive development plan to enhance and conserve alfalfa fodder by cultivating 20,000 ha of irrigated land for hay. At the same time it maintained transhumance of the herds through providing settled bases with education and social facilities for herder's households.