Development and security of follow-up industries in returned farmland to forest/grass lands in Western Region of Shanxi Province

Follow-up industries for the project of returned farmland to forest/grass lands has existed for about 10 years. Protecting achievements and benefits of the developed follow-up industries and the related programs was critical to the success of the projects. This paper analyzed the present trends and questions about safeguarding and developing follow-up industries via comparisons and syntheses with five typical counties in Western Region of Shanxi Province as the cases. Based on the results, the course of developing follow-up industries were divided into three stages — retrogressive development (2000—2003), accelerated development (2003—2006) and quick development (2006—2009). The results were analyzed on the basis of two factors. The first was quality of farmland and changes in follow-up industrial developments in terms of cultivation, population, grain, etc. The second was the question of grains and developments of follow-up industries in any given region. The analysis results of the typical counties showed trends of increasing in farmland quality and sustainable development of follow-up industries under the conditions of farmland decrease and population growth. However, the individual case of the typical counties showed negative growth in total and per cap. grain production in some certain periods. It indicated serious problems in development of follow-up industries. The paper put forward further analytical questions about the amount of farmlands and per-person availability of grains. These factors remained stable in the project regions in Western Shanxi Province.