The Loess Plateau is characterized by low mountain and hilly terrain with loose soil, high erodible, broken terrain, and fragile ecological environment. The productivity of dryland farming is low and unstable historically. With the increase of population pressure, long-term over-reclamation, and over-grazing its ecosystem has been long degraded. Since the founding of PR China, terraced fields have been being constructed on a large scale to effectively reduce soil erosion. Thanks to the continuously updating construction standard of terraced fields it is more and more convenient to produce large areas of mechanized farmland. Since the beginning of the new century, the crop farming system with film mulching furrow-ridge as the vital progress has been widely promoted. In particular, corn and potato mulched by plastic film mulching furrow-ridge system yield much higher than other crops. These have created favorable conditions for coordinated development of grain, complete feed, livestock cash crops, and effectively promoted eradication of poverty and the realization of the goal of overall well-off society. High-quality development in the new era requires innovation in the ecological-friendy technologies and development model of dryland farming. These will help promote the development of natural dryland farming, exploring the transformation from passive to an active mode of ecological restoration and realizing the development goal of regional eco-sustainability.

Loess Plateau  /  dryland farming  /  film mulching furrow-ridge system  /  herbivorous animal husbandry