A few pan-green and some "yellow", sand control "bonsai" must be considered
There are hidden worries behind Ulan Buhe, one of the eight major deserts in China, "Flowers bloom on the desert"
Our reporter Zhang Lina and An Lumeng
In recent days, Beijing and other places have been full of yellow sand, and sandstorms that have not caught people's sight for almost ten years have suddenly struck.
In ten years, it disappeared, and the efforts of several generations of sand control personnel have been devoted.
In ten years, it has made a comeback again, once again warning people that the road to sand control is long and it still takes a long time.
How to control sand in a scientific way, and where is the path of the sand industry?
These problems, along with the development of modern desert control pilot projects, have aroused people's deep thinking.
Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporters conducted research in the Ulan Buhe Desert, one of the eight largest deserts in my country, and found that the once desolate and arid land is undergoing ecological practices such as fungus and grass planting, desert soil transformation, and grape industry. In summer and autumn, Green leafy grasses more than two meters high grow in the vast desert, dozens of fruits and vegetables are growing well, and the wine estate is like a desert oasis.
However, there are deep worries behind the gratifying changes.
There is a huge gap in water indicators, "desert control or show-off" is controversial, and industrialization is difficult to promote... The ecological management of the Ulan Buh Desert is full of hardships and twists, and scientific research institutions, investment companies, and government departments are all wronged.
The grassroots suggested that ecological governance should be tailored to local conditions, and the overall situation must be established, calculating large accounts, calculating long-term accounts, calculating overall accounts, and calculating comprehensive accounts. Only in this way can systemic governance be formed and the harmony and unity of production, life, and ecology should be achieved. Ecological protection has become a short-lived "bonsai project".
The desertification control scientific research test the water, some are green and some are "yellow"
The Ulan Buhe Desert has a total area of nearly 10,000 square kilometers. Because the 82-kilometer west bank of the Alashan section of the Yellow River is close to the Ulan Buhe Desert, soil erosion is serious, and 100 million tons of sediment are fed into the Yellow River every year.
But at the same time, the Ulan Buh Desert is the wettest desert in our country, with abundant groundwater.
Based on special geographical conditions, the Ulan Buhe Ecological Sand Industry Demonstration Zone was established in 2013. It is planned to carry out “locking treatment” for the area connected with desert water with a total area of 1,000 square kilometers. Subsequently, many sand industry treatment projects have tested the water.
In the mobile sandy land on the west bank of the Yellow River on the eastern edge of the Ulan Buh Desert, there is a Juncao Sand Control Demonstration Base in cooperation with Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and Alxa League Yuehe Science and Technology Ecological Co., Ltd.
In the early autumn of last year, the reporter saw on the scene that Juncao more than 2 meters high grew on the yellow sandy ground, resembling corn, with dense branches and leaves. Groundwater was continuously sprayed on the roots of Juncao through drip irrigation capillary.
According to Luo Zongzhi, the person in charge of the experiment at the base, Juncao is a general term for herb plants that can be used as a medium for cultivating edible fungi and medicinal fungi. It has the characteristics of fast growth, well-developed roots, and tall plants.
In 2013, Juncao technology inventor Lin Zhanxi led a team to carry out Juncao wind-proof and sand-fixing experiments in the Ulan Buh Desert.
"In 2020, nearly 200 acres of Juncao were planted in the base. After several months of growth, Juncao can grow to a height of 3 meters." Luo Zongzhi said, Juncao's root system can fix sand and can be used as livestock forage after harvest.
Afterwards, the reporter went to the "desert soilization" ecological restoration scientific research experimental base carried out by the team of Professor Yi Zhijian of Chongqing Jiaotong University.
Yi Zhijian introduced that "desert soilization" is fundamentally different from traditional sand control. The self-developed plant fiber binder is applied between the sand particles, and the method of mechanics is used to modify the sand to "soil", and then have the soil. Characteristics and water retention performance.
Yi Zhijian gave the reporter a field demonstration. He surrounded two piles of sand into a bowl, and then poured the same amount of water. The water in the ordinary sand pit would seep in a few seconds, but after adding the binder, the sand in the sand pit Water can be retained for several minutes.
Beginning in 2016, Yi Zhijian’s team conducted a “desert soilization” planting experiment in the Ulan Buhe Desert, that is, trying to plant various plants on the desert after “sand to soil”.
He said that the soil is transformed into sand to retain water and fertilizer, and the water-saving effect is remarkable.
“At present, the experimental base adopts water-saving irrigation, and the irrigation amount of crops can be lower than the local irrigation quota of 550 tons per year. Sand plants such as Artemisia sphaerocephala, Astragalus spp, Caragana korshinskii can be naturally irrigated under extremely low irrigation or even without irrigation. Grow."
Today, this experimental base has turned into thousands of acres of green farmland, and dozens of crops such as watermelon, radish, tomato and sunflower are growing well.
"Not only is it growing well, but the safety of the adhesive and the'sand-to-soil' soil has also been tested by a third-party organization, and it is non-toxic and harmless," said Yi Zhijian.
In addition to scientific research and experimentation, some desertification control industries have already seen benefits.
Taking Shane Wine Estate as an example, the project has established 30,000 mu of grape groves, 40,000 mu of windbreak forests, 30,000 mu of pasture and leisure resort bases, forming a comprehensive desert management system for desert planting, breeding, grape processing, and ecotourism. Some companies grow green feed in sandy land, and produce organic milk by raising cattle through feed recycling.
These are all regarded as typical cases of positive interaction and sustainable development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries in the local area.
"I have been investing for 8 years and I haven't seen a cent return"
Through a variety of ecological sand control attempts, the comprehensive ecological control of the Ulan Buh Desert has achieved initial results, but many control projects have moved forward amidst disputes and faced doubts and difficulties.
According to Yang Xuezhong, deputy director of the management committee of the Ulan Buhe Ecological Sand Industry Demonstration Zone, in recent years, the demonstration zone has introduced 76 ecological governance enterprises, and successively approved 31 enterprises’ sand control project plans. Due to the lack of technical experience, the only projects that have been implemented so far are In 5 cases, the sand industry is progressing slowly and the results are not obvious.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Juncao Wind and Sand Control Project, it was accompanied by doubts such as "the water consumption is too high" and "it is impossible to grow southern plants in the desert."
The reporter learned that the giant grassland is produced in Africa and is suitable for perennial plants that grow in tropical and subtropical regions.
In this regard, Luo Zongzhi explained that the Juncao in the current experimental base uses subsurface drip irrigation, and its water consumption is equivalent to that of corn.
However, there is a huge gap in local ecological governance water indicators. According to the data provided by the management committee of the Ulan Buhe Ecological Sand Industry Demonstration Zone, the water demand for ecological governance in the demonstration area is about 240 million cubic meters, but the water consumption index assigned by the superior is only 31 million cubic meters. .
Therefore, the management committee is not optimistic about ecological governance projects that consume a lot of water, and their support is limited.
The market is not optimistic about the economic account.
As the investor of the Juncao project, Wen Chao, the person in charge of Alxa League Yuehe Technology Ecological Co., Ltd., has a bitter stomach: "I have been investing for 8 years and have not seen a penny return."
The "desert soilization" technology is also facing controversy.
"Our technology is an interdisciplinary field of mechanics. Some soil experts and sand control experts disagree. There has not been any national scientific research project approved so far, and scientific research funds can only be raised from the society." Yi Zhijian said.
Higher input costs are also a problem.
According to Yi Zhijian, the cost of rebuilding the desert is about 2,000 yuan per acre, plus the cost of fertilization and irrigation, the overall cost will be even higher.
In addition, people in the industry are worried that the soil binder components in this technology will gradually decompose, and the soil may return to desertification after three or four years.
Many of the companies that came to inspect have dispelled the idea of investment due to high investment costs. At present, the "desert soilization" technology is still in the early stages of industrialization.
Avoid "making bonsai" and achieve sustainable development
In the early 1980s, Qian Xuesen had a series of thoughts on the sand industry.
He believes that the desert Gobi with plenty of sunshine may develop into an agricultural space, but the current potential of desert, Gobi, and sunshine is far from being used. Research on the sand industry is still blank, and it will take time to truly achieve the development of the sand industry.
Today, my country’s western regions are actively practicing, but to truly realize the "green, rich, and prosperous" of the desert, grassroots governments, scientific research institutions and enterprises suggest that the top-level design of comprehensive desert ecological management should be further optimized, and continue to focus on technology, capital, and platform construction. Provide support and help to avoid "making bonsai".
"The Ulan Buhe Desert is one of the eight deserts in my country that is most likely to be controlled on a large scale, because it has unique inherent advantages, with irrigation conditions from the Yellow River, and the amount of water supplied by the side of the Yellow River." China Sand Control and Sand Control Said Yang Wenbin, executive vice president and secretary-general of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, and chief expert on desertification prevention and control at the Chinese Academy of Forestry.
However, the prerequisite for desert ecological sand control is to follow the principle of water saving.
"You must choose a good direction in the desert industry and grasp the technical core of the industry, otherwise it will be easy to go wrong." Yang Wenbin believes that in arid areas, every drop of water is important, and ecological water must use the least amount of water. Do governance to ensure ecological safety; industrial water use must be guided by high-value-added technologies to improve economic benefits.
It is understood that there is a huge gap in the Ulan Buh desert water index. If the desert groundwater is used excessively, it will lead to intensified desertification, and the gains outweigh the losses.
But at the same time, wind and sand control projects are inseparable from water.
Yang Xuezhong suggested that more water usage indicators should be allocated to the demonstration area, coordinated to meet the water demand for Ulan Bu and ecological barrier construction, and differentiated pricing should be implemented when pricing water for ecological governance to reduce ecological governance costs.
Ecological desertification control must be combined with industrial development, and it must be both scientific and sustainable.
Desert control technology cannot stay in the "scientific research greenhouse". It should actively explore the integration of ecological governance, sand industry, tourism, etc., and accelerate the industrialization and application of ecological governance projects.
Comprehensive ecological management has the characteristics of large capital investment, long industrial cycle, and slow enterprise returns. In addition, the demonstration area has relatively weak financial resources and limited support for enterprises. Some enterprises currently do not generate substantive taxes, and the contradiction between income and expenditure is very prominent.
During the interview, relevant persons in the Ulan Buhe Ecological Sand Industry Demonstration Zone suggested that special encouragement and support policies for ecological governance and sand industry development should be introduced to solve the ecological governance dilemma in the demonstration zone.
In addition, as an Inner Mongolia autonomous region-level sand industry development zone and an important ecological protection demonstration zone along the Yellow River, the demonstration zone has not yet been included in the autonomous region’s unified planning for industrial development, water, electricity, and communications, which severely restricts economic and social development.
It is recommended that Ulan Buhe desert control should be included in the overall consideration of the autonomous region and even the country, innovate management systems, build a number of key projects such as transportation infrastructure, and earnestly promote the construction of Ulan Buh and ecological barriers.