A few years ago, Zhang Hao was a mechanical engineering student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Since 2020, he has spent much of his time in Minqin County, a desert-prone area in northwest China's Gansu Province, testing machines designed to help plants survive in arid environments.

He's part of a growing movement. According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), some 500 million people live in areas that have experienced desertification since the 1980s, and climate change is making it worse. 

Yet China has become the first nation to achieve zero net land degradation, turning the tide on decades of desert expansion through large-scale ecological restoration.

For young people like Zhang, combating desertification is no longer just about saving the land. It's about putting their skills to the test and building something that lasts.

From volunteer to inventor

Zhang told Chinese media outlet ThePaper he first visited Minqin in 2020 as a university volunteer. What he saw there, the desert swallowing farmland, stayed with him, and he knew he couldn't walk away. 

During repeated field visits, Zhang noticed that traditional planting methods required heavy labor and large amounts of water. Together with fellow students, he began developing a planting machine specifically for desert conditions.

Zhang and his team first developed a controllable hollow drill-bit structure with an adjustable nozzle. Once the drill enters the desert sand, seedlings can be placed through its hollow core. The nozzle then opens to release the seedling before the drill is withdrawn, allowing the surrounding sand to collapse and seal the hole.

In early 2024, the team adapted this mechanism into a handheld drilling machine and conducted repeated field tests in Minqin, refining the system through continuous iteration and on-site research. They then further upgraded the design into an automated planting vehicle capable of completing full planting workflows in desert conditions. Equipped with cameras and sensors, it also provided basic inspection functions.

After a full year of development, Zhang saw his original idea become reality in the desert. By his estimates, the tool could enable planting depths of 30 to 40 centimeters, triple soil moisture at the planting layer compared with traditional methods, and reach up to a 90% survival rate, while reducing water use by 85% and increasing planting efficiency by about eight times.

Zhang is far from alone. In Minqin, a growing number of young people are heading into the desert.

Heading into the desert

Zhong Lin, a university graduate who won a gold medal at the China College Students 'Internet Plus' competition in 2020, joined the fight with government backing and tax relief, sharing his journey through short videos. Ma Lifang, a college student from southwest China's Sichuan Province, came across Zhong online and signed up the same day.

According to national newspaper Guangming Daily, more than 40,000 young volunteers came to plant trees in Minqin in spring 2026 alone. Over three years, more than 100,000 visits have brought 10,000 hectares of sandy land back to life. Volunteers come from all walks of life, entire college dormitories, office workers on leave, and a newlywed couple who swapped their honeymoon for dunes. Their daily routine: carrying 1,800 saplings, squatting thousands of times, and clocking 20,000 to 30,000 steps.

Young ingenuity has also taken root. Wu Jiahui numbered and tracked each sapling. Yan Siqi, an agronomy volunteer, stayed on to monitor the soil. Zhang Wei turned planting techniques into rhymes that spread among the volunteers.

China's anti-desertification efforts have accelerated under major programs such as the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program. According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), China restored a total of 10.1 million hectares of desertified land and 1.95 million hectares of rocky desertification land. The severity of desertification has continued to decline, and ecological conditions in affected areas have steadily improved.

(Gong Zhe contributed to the story.)