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Urumqi Evening News (reporter Jiang Binwei Jin Shaobing) With a history of more than 250 years, the Hetian green donkey is now on the verge of extinction, with only 500 remaining.
Hetian green donkey is one of the three kinds of native donkeys in Xinjiang, because of its good reproductive performance and milk production performance, it is an excellent local breed, and once became an important production and living tool for local farmers. As the mechanization process accelerates, they are gradually withdrawing from the stage of history.
How to retain the last Hetian green donkey has attracted the attention of all parties. Recently, the Animal Husbandry Department of the Autonomous Region revised the "Directory of The Protection of Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources at the Autonomous Region Level", and among the 34 protected breeds, hetian green donkey ranked as a first-class protected breed.
The Hetian Green Donkey has reached the tipping point of extinction
In the early morning of February 26, the first thing a villager in Gora Village, Qiaoda Township, Pishan County, did after getting up was to hurry to the donkey pen behind the house and feed his "babies" with water.
Maimaiti Mahmu is in his 30s, and through a mobile phone video, he showed reporters his "baby" - 7 Gora donkeys.
These donkeys, who are busy eating alfalfa, have tall heads, long ears, and a chrysanthemum blue coat. Among them, the most preferential treatment is a female donkey who is about to give birth, enjoying a few carrots specially prepared for it by the owner.
Tohuti Ajide, secretary of the Animal Husbandry Institute of the Xinjiang Academy of Animal Sciences, is a leader in the discipline of equine zoology, who has been studying xinjiang native donkeys for many years, especially loving goola donkeys, calling him "the most gentle Hercules".
Tohuti Ajid said that the scientific name of the Gola donkey and the Tian qing donkey, also known as the Golo donkey, belongs to the local breed of the combined use type, mainly distributed in Pishan County, Hotan Region, the coat color is mainly green, with the characteristics of tolerance to rough feeding, stable genetic performance, etc., the personality is docile, the weight is particularly prominent, and an adult Gora donkey can walk six kilometers in a row.
Mamati Mahemu watched the donkeys in the circle happily eating hay, but his brow wrinkled.
Azez Mamuti, the deputy township chief who came to the village to check on the donkey's colt production, knew his thoughts: The family of Ablikmu Abdureman in the village had 6 donkeys at most, and none this year. Now don't say that in the village, there are not many families in the county who raise donkeys, and Mahemu is worried that he will not be able to raise donkeys because of breeding problems.
Azezy Mamuti said by phone that there are more than 400 families in Gora Village, which are famous for raising Gora donkeys, and that before 2006 a village had nearly a thousand Gora donkeys, and now there are only more than 130 in the village and only 380 in the whole township.
A set of data from the Animal Husbandry Department of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region confirms that in 2008, the number of green donkeys in Hetian, Pishan County, was 3652, which dropped to 2000 in 2009 and dropped to 500 in 2016.
"The stock rate of Hetian green donkeys has reached the critical point of extinction." Dilishati Maimaiti, an extension researcher at the Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources Section of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Animal Husbandry Station who has been practicing for more than 30 years, said.
In an academic sense, endangerment means that the total population of this species is slightly higher than 100 heads, but it is still decreasing.
"According to this downward trend, Hetian Green Donkey will be reduced by about 100 next year." Wei Hua, deputy director of the Animal Husbandry Technology Extension Station in Hotan Area, calculated.
Traditional aquaculture is difficult to form an industrial chain
Literature shows that Xinjiang is the main birthplace of China's donkeys, as early as the Yin Shang era, the Xinjiang generation has raised donkeys, used donkeys, and constantly imported into the interior, and gradually formed Hetian green donkeys, Xinjiang donkeys and Turpan donkeys.
As a region with a relatively strong foundation for donkey breeding in The country, the number of donkeys in Xinjiang has been far ahead in the country, but due to the gradual replacement of donkey service attributes in recent years, and the high cost of breeding, the number is getting smaller and smaller.
Not only in Xinjiang, but also in China, the species of donkey is endangered. According to the National Livestock Statistical Yearbook, the number of donkeys has fallen from 11 million in the 1990s to 6 million at present, and is still declining at about 300,000 per year.
With the ejiao industry on fire, the shortage of donkey skins has become a bottleneck restricting the development of the entire industry. Relevant data show that in 2000, the price of a donkey skin on the market was only 20 yuan, rose to 200 yuan in 2010, and rose to nearly 2,000 yuan this year, and the price of donkey skin rose by 70-100 times for more than a decade.
Many domestic enterprises have joined the ranks of "looking for donkeys all over the world", and Xinjiang Kezhou Friendship Cashmere Industrial Co., Ltd. is one of them. Wu Shuang, the company's manager, said that last year the company imported 560 live donkeys from Kyrgyzstan for the first time, and sold them to Shandong and other places through the Irkeshtan port, with a donkey purchase price of about 2,000 yuan, and this year it plans to import 20,000 heads.
In the impression of Du Lei, head of Hongwei Group Food Co., Ltd. in Yuncheng County, Heze County, Shandong, the most popular time for the acquisition of donkeys in Xinjiang was from 2004 to 2012, and at least 20,000 heads could be collected a year.
Each donkey in the family can sell at least 8,000 yuan, and last year a small donkey was sold for 17,000 yuan as a breeding donkey, and there are tens of thousands of yuan in the family every year by selling donkeys.
There is demand in the market and the price is high, but why is hetian green donkey in a situation of endangerment?
Li Feng, secretary of the Party Committee of Qiaoda Township in Pishan County, believes that with the popularization of "village-to-village highways" and mechanization, it is a trend for Hetian green donkeys to gradually withdraw from people's production and life.
"Donkeys have a long gestation period, and a donkey gives birth to an average of one a year or two in three years, which is also the reason for the slower reproduction." Alifu Yasheng, director of the Agricultural and Animal Husbandry veterinary bureau of Pishan County, said.
In Wei Hua's view, due to the lack of modern and efficient breeding technology and in-depth development technology, local farmers have been using the traditional way of breeding extensive, coupled with the reduction of feed, donkey skins can only be used in the local area to do ejiao primary processing, farmers profit less, the lack of industrial chain is the main reason for the plummeting decline in the number of green donkeys in Hetian.
Xinjiang's characteristic aquaculture is facing new opportunities
At the same time as the sharp decrease of Hetian green donkeys, the Jiangyue donkeys that have gradually become large-scale development have entered the eyes of people in the industry.
Abuliz Reheman, director of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Station of Yuepuhu County, introduced that the Xinjiang Yue donkey is a new breed bred by hybridization of the "Guanzhong donkey" in Shaanxi and the native donkey in Yuepuhu County, which is waiting for the Ministry of Agriculture to be identified. Xinjiang Yue donkey has the advantage of a milk production cycle of more than 200 days, and the number of stocks in the county reached 80,000 at the end of 2016.
Sun Jiapeng, deputy director of the Animal Husbandry Department of the Animal Husbandry Department of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, introduced that the local specialty milk industry has gradually become a scale, there are many large donkey farmers, there are six donkey milk cooperatives, and there is a donkey milk enterprise, "a donkey produces two kilograms of milk per day, and a large donkey farmer earns at least 600 yuan per day." ”
Zhang Xiaobo, head of the donkey milk enterprise Golden Sunshine Animal Husbandry Technology Co., Ltd., said that the company buys 600 tons of donkey milk every year, and a box of 480 grams of freeze-dried donkey milk powder can be sold for 2,000 yuan, which is sold to the mainland in short supply.
In 2017, the No. 1 document of the Central Committee mentioned that it is necessary to develop large-scale and efficient breeding, accelerate the improvement of varieties, and vigorously develop grass-fed animal husbandry such as cattle and sheep. This brings new opportunities for special breeding in Xinjiang.
Azez Mamuti, deputy mayor of Qiaoda Township, Pishan County, said that the township is ready to expand the planting area of alfalfa and set up a donkey milk cooperative to attract investment from businesses and promote the gradual scale of green donkey breeding in Hotan.
The Hotan region also attaches great importance to the protection of hotan green donkeys, and has continuously strengthened its protection in recent years. In 2008, the state established the Hetian Green Donkey Genetic Resources Seed Preservation Farm in Pishan County, but there was no follow-up operating cost to support the seed preservation farm.
Wei Hua suggested that Pishan County should rebuild seed preservation farms, strengthen protection and breeding of this variety, and establish protected areas.
Tohuti Ajide suggested that the Hotan region should carry out hybrid improvement experiments with reference to the development path of the Xinjiang Yue donkey, cultivate more excellent performance of gora donkey offspring, and promote large-scale breeding.
Sun Jiapeng, deputy director of the Animal Husbandry Department of the Animal Husbandry Department of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, introduced that in accordance with the implemented "Plan for the Protection and Utilization of Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources in the Autonomous Region (2017-2020)", 2-3 million yuan of special funds will be arranged every year to support the construction of seed farms or protected areas in stages and batches. Due to the limited investment funds, Hetian Green Donkey did not appear in the projects supported this year and will be included in the follow-up list.
In 2011, the National Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources Gene Bank has collected hetian green donkey blood. Recently, matters such as the extraction of semen from the Male Donkey of Hetian Green Donkey have been put on the agenda for the preservation of their genetic material in the gene pool in different places.
"We can't let it go out of our sight and end up as a written document or solidified into a memory." Wei Hua said.