Exploring the new routes of animal husbandry on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau based on enclave economy

Abstract: An enclave economy can break the restriction of administrative divisions to realize the cross-space cooperative development for complementary resources. The long-term extensive nomadic practices and natural disasters have continuously degraded the alpine grassland on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, thus severely restricting the sustainable development of animal husbandry. The imbalanced spatial-temporal allocation of grass resources has posed a great threat to the ecological environment, and the market supply of high value-added livestock products. It is necessary to transform and upgrade for the higher quality and efficiency of animal husbandry. In this review, a new concept of "enclave livestock husbandry" was proposed to improve production efficiency and economic benefits in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau using an enclave economy. The restrictive factors were determined for the development of animal husbandry, such as the irrecoverable ecological environment, seasonal growth of pasture in the alpine grassland, and the imbalanced development of pasture and livestock. The local- and near-ground feeding of animal husbandry were summarized to explore the feasibility and key technologies of the "Qing'an" remote mode in practice. Taking the Yak and Tibetan sheep as the research objects, a short-term remote feeding of adaptability was carried out in the Jianghuai watershed (JHW) area using the model. It was found that the yak and Tibetan sheep better adapted to the winter climate, indicating a positive growth of weight in the cold season. Specifically, the Tibetan sheep presented excellent reproductive adaptability for the lambing in the first year after introduction. At the same time, the yaks were reproduced in the JHW region for the first time after two years of adaptation, and successfully gave birth to two yak calves, indicating a factual basis for the development of animal husbandry in enclaves. Therefore, the industrial development model of "enclave animal husbandry" has a great potential for a new path for animal husbandry in the study area. This finding can also provide scientific and technological support to the national ecosystem, thus accelerating the transformation and upgrading of animal husbandry on the plateau. Finally, a basic strategy was proposed to integrate the resource and market for the development mode of livestock enclave. Consequently, the spatial layout of agriculture can be coordinated for a better relationship between market supply and demand. An active market can be achieved to integrate the first, second, and third industries for the development of animal husbandry.