AUSTRALIA could play a major role in conserving fragile grassland ecosystems in China if a free trade agreement (FTA) was finalised.
At a Department of Environment and Primary Industry (DEPI) Hamilton Research Centre seminar on Monday, China Agricultural University forage and grass research system chief scientist Ying-jun Zhang said enormous domestic demand for grain-fed livestock had put China's native grassland ecosystems under severe pressure.
In December, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced Australia was close to securing an FTA with China after eight years of negotiations.
It would be a win-win for the two countries, according to Professor Zhang, who said an FTA between China and Australia would ease the escalating pressure on China's natural environment to cater for the country's growing taste for beef and lamb.
"We have much need from Australia's beef and lamb production because we have very big demand for beef and lamb in China and the production (capabilities) are limited," Prof Zhang said.
"In China the cost to produce beef is much higher than here so some of the meat needs to come from other countries."
Prof Zhang said despite a consistently growing demand for red meat in the past decade, the gap between beef-lamb and pork-poultry was still large.
One of the major issues discussed during the seminar was the fragility of grasslands ecosystems that make up 41 per cent of the country's area. These grasslands are currently under severe pressure to respond to economic and environmental changes.
"The increased native grassland area in Asian countries that is sown for pastures to support primary industry is putting severe pressure on fragile ecosystems," he said.
The demand for forages is vigorous, with sown grassland area having reached 12.1 million hectares (mha), 3.7mha of which is alfalfa pasture.
In the early 1990s, China's Charged Contract System for grassland was piloted.
Under the system, grassland is owned by the public, contracted to households for more than 30 years and operated independently. The contracting area reached 274.5mha, accounting for 82.9pc of China's available grassland.
Prof Zhang said milk, beef and mutton production was forecast to reach 50 million tonnes (mt), 7mt and 4.4mt respectively by next year – up by 33.4pc, 7.2pc and 10pc compared to 2010.
"Increasing demand for livestock products in China will likely result in more intensive use of natural resources and put additional pressure on these fragile systems," he said.
"Although policy drivers might be the most important instrument of change in management of grassland and forage systems in China, nevertheless, other drivers such as economic, social, technical and environmental drivers still contribute greatly to continued change and evolution of the system."
Prof Zhang said with 1.3 billion people's diet contributing to the demand for grain-fed livestock, Chinese farmers needed to increase beef and sheep production that utilised pasture and grasslands.
"If the FTA was agreed on we could consume a lot more from Australia, and I forecast it happening in the near future," he said.
New Zealand and China entered into an FTA in 2008, bringing an end to a negotiation process that spanned 15 rounds over three years.
Last year, China was NZ's biggest sheepmeat market, accounting for 28pc of lamb, 52pc of mutton and 33pc of sheepmeat exported from that country.
Beef & Lamb New Zealand reported NZ's total sheepmeat exports to China reached 131,000t in 2012-13, making China the largest single sheepmeat market.