China News Service, February 8th (Wei Xianghui) "More than 30 years ago, this Gobi wasteland had a bad climate. Generations of Aksu people insisted on planting trees and afforestation, and finally we have our happy life today." Li Hongrong, who runs a farmhouse, is now at home He ate the "ecological tourism meal" at the door, and he believed that it was all thanks to the Aksu Kekeya Desert Greening Project.
A corner of Kekeya Greening Project (data map)
fight for green
Aksu is located at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains and the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Kekeya, which means "blue cliff", is the main source of wind and sand in the urban area of Aksu City and Wensu County.
According to Song Xingnian, curator of the Ke Keya Memorial Hall, in the 1980s, sand and dust raged here, and residents spent nearly a quarter of their time in the dust in a year.
Until 1986, a Kekeya desert greening project kicked off.
This year, in order to eradicate the damage caused by wind and sand, the leading group of the Aksu Prefectural Committee decided to carry out large-scale afforestation in Kekeya.
"It's not easy to plant trees in Kekeya. Canal construction, road construction, leveling, and alkali reduction are all difficult." Song Xingnian introduced that the highest soil salinity in Kekeya is 9.87%, which is much higher than The salinity-alkali content stipulated by the state shall not exceed the 1.0% afforestation standard, and bulldozers can only draw a few white marks when they go back and forth.
Of the 8 bulldozers, 7 were broken.
People tried all kinds of methods, but in the end they had to use blasting to blast away Ke Keya's hard formation.
Bao Wei, a staff member of the Kekeya Protection and Management Station, recalled: "Digging ditches to discharge alkali brought in snow water from the Tianshan Mountains. It took 15 days to irrigate 100 mu of land at a time. At that time, people wore a big cotton-padded jacket and lived in the fields. , one person can only eat three naans a day."
A corner of Kekeya Greening Project (data map)
From planting trees to "planting wealth"
The desert has turned into a sea of forests, and Aksu City in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has embarked on a green development path from planting trees to "growing wealth".
Walking into the facility agriculture demonstration base of Aksu Ice and Snow Honey Crisp Garden, one after another solar greenhouses stand in front of you, and the fruit trees in the greenhouses are thriving.
In 2021, the planting area of forest and fruit in Aksu will reach 4.504 million mu, the fruit-bearing area will reach 4.295 million mu, and the total fruit output will reach 2.526 million tons. The area of forest and fruit in Aksu will rank second in Xinjiang, and its output and output value will rank first in Xinjiang. It accounts for 1/3 of the per capita disposable income of farmers.
Wen Jianzong, a farmer in Gobi New Village, Kekeya Town, Wensu County, said: "We planted fruit trees in the Gobi Desert, which not only changed the Gobi Desert, but also put us on the road to prosperity."
With the continuous expansion of the planting area of characteristic forests and fruits, some enterprises mainly engaged in deep processing of fruits have come to Aksu. While carrying out the purchase and processing of fruits, they have driven local people to find employment nearby and increase their income.
Aksu Zhejiang Fruit Co., Ltd. is one of them.
The company processes 50,000 tons of walnuts annually, employs 500 people, and generates annual sales of 300 million yuan.
Zhao Wenge, general manager of the company, said: "Aksu's high-quality agricultural and forestry products and good business environment are the inexhaustible driving force for us to develop with confidence and devote ourselves to research and development."
After more than 30 years of winter and summer, Aksu people have drawn a blueprint to the end and continued to sow green. They have built a "Green Great Wall" with a length of 25 kilometers from north to south and a width of about 2 kilometers from east to west. The afforestation area has reached more than 1.2 million mu. There are 48.5 million trees of this type.
Here has become a famous "fruit basket" all over the country. The former Gobi desert has become green water and green mountains, golden mountains and silver mountains.
Kekeya Longkou Village (data map)
Continue to strive for a new look
Looking at the trees planted in front of his house, Maimaiti Tuohuti, a farmer in Ratlek Village, Yingerik Township, Awati County, has more hopes.
"I want to actively participate in afforestation, plant more trees, and make our homes more and more beautiful."
Today's Ke Ke Ya is green and rippling, full of fruity fragrance.
The Aksu people turned the Gobi desert into green water and green mountains, mountains of gold and silver, but they did not stop.
Following the Kekeya Greening Project, the Aksu region has successively implemented the Aksu River Basin Ecological Management Project, the Weigan River Basin Ecological Management Project, and the Kongdelike Regional Ecological Management Project.
In 2021, Wensu County in Aksu Prefecture was selected as one of the fifth batch of national practice and innovation bases of "green water and lush mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains".
The ancient Gobi has turned into a forest of ten thousand hectares, and the interplanted economic forest has also become the largest characteristic forest and fruit base in the Tarim Basin.
High-quality specialty fruits such as thin-skinned walnuts, apples, red dates, and fragrant pears are sold all over the country from here, and they have become golden business cards of the Aksu region.
Ke Keya is like a green "spring eye", which not only spreads the green to the vast land of Aksu, but also flows to the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.
"The air in the city has become more humid, and the sand and dust weather has decreased. Aksu City is about to become another city in the south of the Yangtze River." Maimaiti Tuohuti said.
(over)