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Before 1964, the slopes on China's Loess Plateau were cultivated up and down by machinery. Consequently soil and water were lost at high rates and fertility and yields declined. Accessibility to cultivated land became more and more difficult due to dissection by gullies. The first terraces were established by self-mobilisation of local land users. However there was no standard design. Furthermore as the individual plots were very small and scattered all over the village land, terracing needed better co-ordination. Between 1964 and 1978 the local government at the country level took the initiative of organising farmers and planning terrace implementation according to specific technical design on a larger scale. At that time the land was still communally managed by production brigades. Through mass mobilisation campaigns people from several villages were organised to collectively terrace the land - village by village - covering around 2,000 hectares each year. Labour was unpaid.
The Yellow River Conservation Commission (YRCC) came into being in 1948 and the Upper and Middle Yellow River Bureau in 1977. This gave greater impectus to the implementation of SWC in the Loess Plateau. After 1978 land use rights were allocated to individuals (though official ownership was still vested in the state). SWC specialist and country level SWC bureaus started to work with groups of farmers who had land use rights within a given area. Survey and design were carried out. The farmers organised themselves, consolidated the parcels of lands and then after the conservation work was done they redistributed the terraced fields.
In the 1980s the government started to financially support land users involved in SWC projects. Subsidies ranged from 20$/ha (approx) in projects at country level, to 55$/ha for national projects (e.g through the Yellow River Commission) and upto 935$/ha when world bank projects were involved - as in recent past. Implements were provided by the farmers themselves. Then in 1998 a nationwide project in SWC - which originally was proposed at country level - was approved by the national government. Furthermore in 1991 a national law on SWC came into force. Protection of the Yellow River and associated dams became a priority at regional and national levels. In total within Zhuanglang country 60 SWC specialists/extentionists cover an area of 1,550 km2 and most of the terraces were built up with low levels of subsidies. Annual plans about implementing at village or township level, whereas bigger areas (> 7 hectares) were designed at country level. Implementation then took place during winter. Terracing was implemented first where access was easiest and closest to settlements and only later further away.
