China combats desertification in more innovative, effective ways

Ningxia, a northwestern Chinese region encircled by deserts, has long been at the forefront of the battle against desertification.

China's desert management has evolved dramatically from the inception of a wheat straw grid sand fixation method in the 1950s to the modern straw checkerboard sand barrier laid with brush net rope.

Shapotou, located at the southeast edge of the Tengger Desert, is named for its once towering dunes, each over a hundred meters high. It is also where the desert and the Yellow River meet, with the river rushing on one side and the yellow sand lying high on the other.

Not far away, wheat straw grids crawl on the dunes, building a grass wall that imprisons the flowing sand and prevents the desert from invading the Yellow River.

In 2019, a team led by researcher Qu Jianjun from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed the updated version, straw checkerboard sand barriers laid with brush net rope. This breakthrough involves using machinery to weave wheat straw into brush-like straw ropes, achieving mechanized production in key processes, saving manpower, and facilitating large-area sand prevention and control.

The new straw checkerboard's production efficiency is over 60 percent higher than that of the manually tied grass grid, effectively reducing the engineering costs of sand prevention and control. Its durability is also higher than that of the manually tied one, with a service life extended from three to six years, and it can be reused.

Nowadays, in the Tengger Desert to the northwest of Ningxia's Zhongwei City, workers are pushing grass-tying vehicles to lay such sand barriers. As two round grass-pressing blades roll over, the wheat straw laid on the sand is precisely planted into the sand, weaving into a golden sand barrier.

Tying the grass grid is the first step in sand fixation. Seedlings and grass are then planted in the grid to form a permanent barrier against moving sand dunes.

Tang Ximing, who has been engaged in sand control for 34 years, invented an iron seedling tool that can plant a tree in a few seconds without the need for additional watering.

This invention has increased the survival rate of seedlings by 25 percentage points compared to the traditional method, and greatly improved the efficiency of afforestation.

In 2017, this innovation was promoted to other regions, including Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Gansu.

Starting in 2023, Tang upgraded the tool to an electric seedling planter, further increasing the efficiency of tree planting.

"In the past, a skilled worker could dig a tree hole in three or four minutes, but now, with the electric seedling planter, a tree can be easily planted in less than 10 seconds," Tang added.

Over the past half century, the increasing array of homegrown technologies has enabled Ningxia to achieve remarkable results in combating desertification.

According to the sixth national survey of desertification and land degradation conducted in 2022, the desertified and sandy land areas in Ningxia decreased by some 1,540 square kilometers and 1214 square kilometers respectively compared to the figures recorded in 2015, indicating a significant improvement in the local ecological environment.