The salty and remote wilderness of the Yellow River Delta is gradually becoming a major pasture on the east coast of China.

The delta, with a total area of 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres), now boasts 160,000 hectares (395,360 acres) of artificially developed pastures, said agricultural officials in Shandong Province, where the delta is located.

Over the past two years, the Hengdian Group, a township enterprise from Zhejiang Province in east China, has invested 200 million yuan (US$24 million) to grow clover and other feed grasses.

The company has employed over 20 agricultural experts from China and the United States to work on its pastures, equipped with all sorts of sophisticated farming machines.

Company officials said they plan to develop 40,000 more hectares (98,840 acres) of salt marsh into pasture in the next eight years.

On the pastures will be facilities for cattle breeding, meat processing and product distribution. The total investment will exceed 4.5 billion yuan (US$542 million), the officials said.

Another enterprise, the Shandong Yipin International Group, has also spent 100 million yuan (US$12 million) on its pasture development project.

The Yellow River Delta is still expanding by 1,200 hectares (2,965.2 acres) a year, thanks to the muddy river, one of the thickest in the world.

A blueprint for the development of an ecologically-friendly economy on the delta, developed by the China Comprehensive Development Research Institute and approved by a group of 20 experts headed by Lu Liangshu, vice-president of the China Academy of Engineering, says stock raising should be given top priority.

(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2002)