A socio-ecological survey in Jalantai Area, Alxa League, Inner Mongolia, China

This article concerns with new and traditional practises in agriculture in Alxa League in the Inner Mongolia of China. For such a purpose, the DISPAA Department of University of Florence (Italy) collaborated with the University of Tuscia (Italy), which has been one of the Italian executives for the Beijing Wind Dust Control Project under the framework of the Sino-Italian Cooperation Programme on Environmental Protection. In the context of ADAM Project, the Inner Mongolia was indicated as a potential hot-spot due to the combination of climatic change, human activities and the general phenomenon of desertification, which is an ongoing process in this area. During the past centuries, arid and semi-arid general environmental characteristics of Inner Mongolia’s landscape have conditioned the main course of economic development in rural areas. Into the Alxa League, a sub-case study situated around Jarantai City in the Alxa Left Banner was selected. During 2005-06, the work analysed the agricultural activities of the local rural population to evaluate if these might be able to cope with desertification and, more in general, with climatic change impacts. In particular, field surveys were implemented among local peasants, which were old herders or new farmers immigrated in the area, following a non-structured interview approach where the length of the interview was calibrated on the characteristics of the single interviewed. The interviews showed that soil fertility and water requirement (e.g. water drawdown and high evaporation rate that cause superficial salt crust formation) are yet the main constraints to social and economic development of agriculture.