Farming and Animal Husbandry

　　 Farming. Tibet currently has 232,000 hectares of cul-tivated land. Important farm produce includes winter high-land barley, winter wheat, spring wheat, spring highland barley, peas, broad beans, potatoes, rape and beets. In some areas rice, corn, soybeans, mung beans, peanuts, tobacco, cabbage, spinach, turnips, brassica, buckwheat, jizhuagu (glutinous highland millet) and lamb's-quarters are also grown. High-land barley and spring wheat have long been cultivated in Tibet. More than 70 species of highland barley are found and there are six species of spring wheat with more than 50 varie-ties. Walnuts, tea, apples and sea-buckthorns are leading cash crops. Walnut planted on 4,600 hectares of land produces more than 500 tons annually. Annual output of tea is 130 tons. Over 4,000 tons of more than 40 species of apples are produced annually. Seabuckthorns are found throughout the region with the exception of the northern plateau, with more than 6,600 hectares along the Yarlung Zangbo, Lhasa and Nyangqu rivers alone.
　　Major farming areas in Tibet are found along the Yar-lung Zangbo River and its tributaries, and the plains lining the Jinshajiang, Lancangjiang and Nujiang rivers. These ar-eas are known as the "highland granaries." Under the restra-ints of the old feudal serf system, the development of the productive forces was extremely slow, production methods were backward, tools rudimentary and farming methods cru-de. Statistics gathered in 1952 report more than 160,000 hectares of cultivated land, but a grain output of only 155,000 tons. Seeking to overcome this backward state, Tibetan far-mers energetically pursued farmland capital construction beginning in the 1 960s. Irrigation works were built, soil im-proved, new-style farming tools popularized and high-quality seed types cultivated. The old system of cultivation was im-proved with development of scientific farming. As a result, agricultural production climbed rapidly. By 1998, farm ma-chinery totalled 914,600 kw, averaging 0.43 kw per farmer; land ploughed and sown by machines accounted for 43.1 percent and 6.1 percent of the total; farmland devoted to fine varieties made up 67.8 percent of the total; annual grain out-put was 849,800 tons, averaging 399 kg per person in rural areas; farmers and herders made 1,158 yuan per capita.
　　Animal Husbandry. Tibet's vast land area is a rich re-source for animal husbandry. It is one of China's five great pasturelands; 56 percent of all of its grasslands, 46 million hectares, are used only for animal husbandry. Another 21.6 million hectares, 26 percent of total grassland, are used for farming and animal husbandry, with the remaining 14.8 million hectares, or 18 percent being used only for farming. High-quality, grass-rich grassland accounts for 9.7 percent of all usable grassland, 5.3 million out of55 million hectares available. Medium-grade grasslands total 39 million hecta-res, 70.9 percent of all usable grasslands, with the remaining 10.66 million hectares, 19.4 percent, low-yield desert steppe.
　　Important domesticated animals include yaks, cattle, pian niu (offspring of a bull and a female yak), horses, don-keys, sheep and pigs. Most of these are raised under extensive conditions and are indigenous, primitive species. As such they are well adapted to local conditions, genetically prepar-ed for the cold, low air pressure and thin oxygen of the high plateau. These animals provide the material base for the sub-sistence of the Tibetan people and also a valuable resource for the generation of foreign exchange In addition they pro-vide important raw materials for local traditional handicrafts, textiles, processing and other light industry. They hold an important position in the nation's economy.
Animal husbandry has been practiced for several thou-sand years in Tibet using the primitive extensive grazing method, the herdsmen moving from place to place to find water and grass, a situation that continued until the late 1950s. Productivity was low. Reportedly, there were only 9.74 million head of livestock in Tibet in 1952. Over the past 40 years the Tibetan governments at various levels have or-ganized herdsmen in a large-scale move to protect the grass-lands. Livestock breeds have been improved and prevention and treatment of livestock diseases emphasized. Other me-asures, such as enclosing or irrigating pastureland and rot-ating grazing, have further benefitted animal husbandry. By the end of 1998, the region had 1.5961 hectares of enclosed grasslands, 1.5541 hectares of irrigated grasslands, and 977,800 hectares of grasslands where efforts were made to wipeout rats, pests and poisonous grass. By 1996, there were more than 24 million head of livestock in the region, con-sisting of 4 million yaks, 980,000 cattle, 270,000 pian niu, 1.55 million dairy cattle, 140,000 horses, 11.4 million sheep, 5.77 million goats and 230,000 pigs. Total output of meat was 129,100 tons, milk 195,600 tons and wool 8,000 tons.
Forestry. Recent years saw more efforts Tibet made to beef up the forestry organs. The General Plan for Develop-ment of Forestry in Tibet was worked out; measures taken to strengthen management over forestry and prevent fire. In 1996, the region planted 12.2 hectares of trees. Output value of forestry hit 87.74 million yuan, a 7.6 percent increase over the previous year. In Nyingchi, the net income of farmers and herders reached 1,248.34 yuan per person in 1998, which stays higher than the regional level.
　　Township Enterprises. As elsewhere in China, town-ship enterprises and the diversified economy have been de-veloping quite rapidly. In 1996 earnings by township enterprises reached 320 million yuan, while proceeds from the di-versified economy reached 480 million yuan.
Research in Natural Sciences
　　 Major Research Achievements. Tibet's singular physi-cal geography determines the distinctive highland character of the scientific study of the local geology, biology, metro-logical phenomena, medicine, agriculture and animal hus-bandry. From the 1950s through the 1980s China organized several large-scale multi-disciplinary comprehensive scien-tific survey teams and survey teams in individual scientific fields to do on-the-spot research on the Tibetan Plateau. Work was done in more than a dozen fields including geology, ge-ography, geophysics, geodesic surveying, metrology, hydro-logy, biology and transportation. The results of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Comprehensive Scientific Survey Team's field investigations in Tibet be-tween 1973 and 1976 were published as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Scientific Survey Series. Between 1980 and 1986 the Chinese Academy of Sciences completed a second overall investigation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, this time fo-cusing on the geological structure ofthe plateau, its formation and evolution and the distribution pattern of its major mineral resources. This investigation resulted in flindamentally clari-iying understanding of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau's tectonic and geological structure and the disposition of minerals throughout the area. Two treatises were compiled, The For-mation andEvolution ofthe Qinghai-Tibet Plateau andPrin-cipal Mineral Resources of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Their Patterns ofDistribution. Many years of research and on-the-spot investigation have revealed many hitherto profound mysteries of the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Basic theories on the formation and development of the plateau have been established and the prospects for the exploitation of natural resources laid out. This theoretical system has maintained its dominant position internationally.
　　Research of applied technology has focussed on prob-lems and areas involving highway transportation, agriculture and animal husbandry, forestry, metrology, hydropower gen-eration, construction engineering and energy resources, in addition to techniques used in traditional crafis such as wea-ving, building construction and silvermaking.
　　In 1996, Tibet invested 10 million yuan to develop sci-ence and technology, an increase of 33 percent from 1995. Eighteen applied technological research projects were under-taken, 18 technologies introduced, and nine of those adopted as examples for others to emulate.
　　Research Institutions. Research institutions speciali-zing in agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and electro-power have been established one afier another since the early 1 950s. They are staffed by more than 28,000 technicians. These have been joined by research institutions devoted to solar energy, biology, plateau ecology, transportation, geol-ogy and calendrical study, as well as the Lhasa Earthquake Detection Station and the Scientific and Technological In-formation Institute.
　　Scientific and Technological Cooperations and Aca-demic Exchange. Relevant regional research departments have joined in academic exchange and scientific and tech-nological cooperation with their counterparts in Nepal, Japan, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Iceland, the United States, Canada, Australia, Britain, and the Netherlands in fields in-cluding solar, wind and geothermal energy, exploitation of saline lake mineral resources, agriculture and animal husba-ndry, astronomy, geography, metrology, glacier, mud-rock flow and landslide investigation, and technological trans-formation of enterprises.
　　In August 1994 an international academic seminar on the cosmic ray physics was held in Lhasa. In a project initi-ated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Tibet Autonomous Region Science and Technology Cornmission, the Tibet Yangbajain Cosmic Rays Observatory, jointly founded by Tibet University and Japan's Tokyo University have since 1990 gathered nearly 2 billion units of data.