China will restrict grazing on natural grasslands across the country over the next five years to protect grasslands from further deteriorating, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Zong Jinyao, director in charge of the ministry's grassland administration center, said that the country will invest 26 billion yuan (US$3.1 billion) in the project, helping restore the natural biological system on nearly 70 million hectares of degenerated grassland.

China now has natural grassland of 400 million hectares, accounting for 41.7 percent of its total land space. But experts warned that 90 percent, or 360 million hectares, of the natural grassland has been degenerating to various degrees because of over-grazing. The figure is increasing by 2 million hectares a year.

Zong said at a seminar held recently in Inner Mongolia that the country will ban grazing on certain grassland and designate special areas as fallow pasture. It will also ask herdsmen to graze animals on different pasture by turns.

Before this nationwide program, China has invested 2.8 billion yuan in two years' of trials in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Ningxia. The result shows that if proper and scientific measures are adopted, the project will not affect local animal husbandry development, said Qin Yucai, head of the agriculture and forestry panel of the government office for the development of western China.

In Ningxia, Qin said, in addition to adopting grazing bans at certain pasture, local animal husbandry departments encouraged the planting of grazing grass as a substitute for natural grass. The measure helped improve the agricultural product mix and promote animal husbandry development. In 2003, the amount of sheep bred in the region was 4.9 percent more than that in 2002.