Darhan Muminggan Joint Banner – located in Baotou city, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region – has been approved to be a national pilot for the transformation and upgrading of animal husbandry on grassland, according to a report on Aug 7 by the banner's development and reform commission.

The banner has plans to invest 324 million yuan ($45.4 million) in the grassland animal husbandry transformation and upgrading project, which will be implemented within four years.

To this end, the banner received 160 million yuan in funding support from the National Development and Reform Commission.

The project will concentrate agricultural and pastoral resources within a specific region in the banner, change the production methods of grassland animal husbandry, as well as facilitate its transformation and upgrading.

On completion, the banner will establish high-yield and high-quality forage bases, modernized grassland-scale eco-livestock farms and cold chain storage for fresh meat.

It will also promote the expansion of high-quality breeding livestock and forage seeds, disaster prevention and mitigation for forage storage and transportation – as well as integrated grassland-livestock services.

The aim is for the project to continue to improve the banner's grassland ecology and environment.

It will also aim to significantly elevate the level of leadership and demonstration in modern animal husbandry, as well as enhance the competitiveness of livestock products in the market.

Overall, it's expected that by 2027 the banner's ability to supply high-quality forage will be significantly strengthened.

As a result, the forage self-sufficiency rate will jump from 30 percent in 2023 to 60 percent and the per capita disposable income of herders will rise from 23,629 yuan in 2023 to 27,000 yuan.