This paper outlines the conditions of farming and grazing on the Tibetan Plateau and describes recent trends.
1) The pasturage extends in a semicircular belt along the provincial border from Changtan, Kansu, Suchung, and Yunnan, with summer-grazing in North Changtan, which is the least fertile area.
The Golmud-Lhasa road divides the plateau from South Changtan to the Gandise and Nyanqentanglha Ranges into eastern and western sectors. To the east is a good grazing area of high mountain meadows which produce 0.9-1.025t/ha of hay. To the west is a dry plain only good for sheep grazing.
The agricultural belt of the Ngiali area (Yarlung Zangbo Valley, Nu River, Lancang River, Jinsha River and Xinin City) is on the Tibetan Plateau. It produces mainly highland barley, wheat (winter and spring), rape, peas, and also provides pasturage. The traditional system of land utilization is a five-year crop rotation of highland barley-highland barley and peas-peas-wheat or rape-fallow.
2) The agricultural administration of the Cultural Revolution period is characterized by the following three points:
a) Increase in the production of winter wheat by order of the administration.
b) Development of cultivation and excessive grazing for the purpose of increasing food production.
c) Increased poverty.
Item (c) is a result of (a) and (b). Winter wheat gives greater yield, but because of the long growing season (300-350 days) increased winter wheat cultivation resulted in the reduced production of highland barley and zhanpa (barley flour) which is the staple food of Tibetans. In the period of the Cultural Revolution food production had been put in the forefront, but poor harvests were experienced in spite of cultivating good land.
Until the fall of 1980, production levels of livestock were assessed officially by the total number of head at the end of the year, leading to over-stocking and an increased burden on the grazing lands in the fall and winter. In addition, much of the best grazing land was converted to crop land, and as a result the deaths of livestock increased. This policy ruined farming on the Tibetan Plateau, whose previous econmic foundations were fragile. In addition to that, the Cultural Revolution, which began in 1966, gave rise to a great number of political scandals at the same time that people lost econmic incentives in their agricultural labor.
3) After the Cultural Revolution, a new policy began in Qinghai Province in 1979 and in the Tibetan Autonmous Region in 1980. Various systems of production responsibility, including private management, were adopted during the following phase of production administration. The agricultural practices reverted, and much cultivated land was returned to grazing ground.

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