Why sell soil and not grow food here
——Follow-up investigation into the black land in Wuchang, Heilongjiang
Photo by our reporter Shen Hui
In April of this year, the case of sabotage and robbery of black land in Wuchang City, Heilongjiang Province, aroused many concerns.
For a time, black soil protection became a hot topic.
Heilongjiang is the most important main grain producing area in my country, and the northeast black soil region is one of the three largest black soil regions in the world.
Fertile black land plays an irreplaceable role in ensuring my country's food security.
What happened to the destroyed black land today?
What warnings does this incident bring to the protection of black soil?
How to prevent similar incidents from happening?
Wuchang City in Heilongjiang Province is nationally famous for Wuchang rice, but not long ago, it was “famous” for stealing black land.
From the end of March to the beginning of April this year, a case of sabotage and theft of black land in Wuchang City caused concern.
According to media reports, in Futai Village, Shahezi Town, Wuchang City, some foreign contracting tenants stripped the black soil layer and stolen the turf soil covered under it for sale, involving a land area of approximately 95,000 square meters.
Now that two months have passed, has the phenomenon of piracy been curbed?
Can the damaged farmland be restored?
Why sell soil but not grow food here?
Recently, a reporter from Economic Daily came to visit Wuchang City.
What is the stolen digging field now?
Take a green train from Harbin to Wuchang City, and then drive for more than 3 hours. After passing the bumpy mountain road, the reporter came to Futai Village, which is located in the valley.
Not long after it rained, Futai Village looked a little depressed.
If it weren't for the case of digging black land, this small mountain village surrounded by mountains might not come into public view.
Public investigation results show that there are two soil pits at the illegal mining site in Futai Village, one is located about 1 km east of Sijianfangtun in Futai Village. The land is basic farmland in Futai Village, Shahezi Town, and the mining area is 60,498 square meters. The other is located about 500 meters east of Futaitun, Futai Village. The land is cultivated land within the scope of Shanhetun Forestry Bureau. The mining area is 34946 square meters.
"I've heard of digging soil before, but it's the first time here." When he met a villager surnamed Liu in Liangdianzitun, Futai Village, he was walking slowly home with a small agricultural machine, "It seems Around the Spring Festival this year, people started digging in the fields."
Under the leadership of this villager, the reporter came to a vacant lot tens of meters away from his home.
This vacant lot used to be a drying area, and it was covered with a layer of dark mud, and a small mound of several cubic meters remained at the telephone pole on the side.
According to the villager, the criminal gang had piled up the peat soil dug from the field before. Now the site has been leveled, and the layer of soil that is obviously darker is the peat soil that was later backfilled into the field.
“At the moment, the stolen rice fields have been backfilled. Because the soil blocks have not been thawed when backfilling, the backfill soil has a large gap and cannot be fully returned to the field. Therefore, the farmland here looks better than the adjacent farmland that has not been stolen. It's almost tens of centimeters shorter." Tian Long, a resident of Futai Village, Futai Village, told reporters.
In a small village more than 60 kilometers away from Futai Village in Wuchang City, the reporter interviewed an elderly woman.
"Some people in the village stopped planting their own rice fields in the past two years and dug up the turf soil for sale. But now they are not allowed to rebuild it." The old woman was not surprised when it came to the thief digging the hay soil.
The reporter also randomly interviewed several farmers in Fengshoutun, Dongxintun, Hanchonghetun and other places.
Regarding the illegal excavation and reselling, they frankly said, "There was indeed a sale in the past, but it is now strictly investigated."
It can be seen that with the launch of the special rectification action of Heilongjiang Province to crack down on the illegal mining of turf and black soil, the phenomenon of the illegal excavation of land in Wuchang City has been significantly curbed.
Will the damaged farmland affect farming?
"Fortunately fortunately, the local temperature was low at the time of the pirate mining, and the frozen soil blocks that were dug up were not completely thawed, and they have been returned to the field." According to the analysis and judgment of Sui Yueyu, a researcher at the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, "With the temperature As it rises, the returned soil will gradually melt. In addition, the area is planted with rice, and the field needs to be soaked before rice transplanting, which can turn the soil into porridge and make it flat. It is not expected to have much impact on the farming."
Why outsource but not grow food
"It's not worth making money." When asked why someone in the village would rather outsource land than grow grain, the villager surnamed Liu in Liangdianzitun calculated an account for the reporter: the average yield per mu of paddy field in Futai Village Rice 1500 catties, excluding the cost of fertilizer, machinery, etc., can make a net profit of two to three hundred yuan a year; but even if the paddy fields rented out for digging soil, even if they are managed carefully, the yield of rice per mu is only six to seven hundred catties, or five to six. Yield of 100 catties.
The same is the paddy field, why is the yield per mu so huge?
The answer is that the soil types are different.
Sui Yueyu, who is mainly engaged in soil geography and soil ecology, has visited Futai Village twice for field investigations.
He told reporters that these stolen paddy fields were at the foot of the mountain. Long ago, they were wetlands. They were later cultivated into farmland. This is what the common people often call "fazi land."
Because of the low-lying terrain of "Daizidi", the fields are rich in water and grass, plant roots, litter, etc. accumulate and rot here. Over time, layers of peat and peat will gradually form with varying thickness, which is commonly known by the locals. "Fazitu".
"The reason why the criminal gang spends a lot of time hiring multiple excavators to strip the black soil from the surface of the paddy field is precisely to obtain the grass charcoal soil that covers the black soil layer." Sui Yueyu said.
Different from ordinary black soil, peat and peat soil are often composed of semi-decomposed or undecomposed organic residues, some of which still maintain the original shape of plant roots, stems, leaves, etc., and the color is undecomposed yellow-brown to semi-decomposed Tan or even black, its organic matter content is mostly 50% to 87%.
The organic matter content of farmland black soil in this area is generally only about 3%.
In recent years, lawless elements have stolen the peat soil from the digging fields, mainly for sale in order to make profits.
"The'fazi soil' they dug up is crushed, screened, packaged and transported to the city to grow flowers and vegetables, and sold far to Beijing, the south and other places." said a villager surnamed Liu.
In addition to growing flowers and vegetables, rice seedling cultivation is also an important use of peat soil.
"It is not as heavy as other soils.'Fazi soil' is light in weight and has a soft structure. It is easy to peel off when transplanting seedlings and is not easy to disperse, so we often use it as nursery bed soil." In Futai Village, many people have their houses in front of and behind their houses. They will pile up some peat soil dug from their own fields, and occasionally spend money to buy some peat soil.
"Look, it's just such a small pile, it can last a few years." The villager surnamed Liu pointed to the pile of grass charcoal in front of his house and told reporters.
Whether it is rice seedlings or flowers and vegetables, grass charcoal soil is a good material, but farmers who have "dizi land" can't love it.
Sui Yueyu explained that this is because peat soil is a low-yield soil.
The peat soil is very soft, and cars and people are easy to get stuck, so it can only be planted manually, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive.
Not only that, the rice field will be irrigated before transplanting rice seedlings. Because of its low density, the surface soil will float like a boat when the rice is soaked. In addition, the turf soil has strong water absorption, and the soil temperature will decrease after water absorption, especially in spring rice. The seedling stage is not conducive to the growth of seedlings, and the yield of rice is low.
"Considering the conditions of arable land, farmers are willing to strip the turf soil." Sui Yueyu said.
The villager surnamed Liu was deeply touched by this, "Have you seen the swampland on TV?'Fazidi' is just like the swampland. As soon as the farm machinery enters the field, it will sink in with a'pop', and you have to find a car again. Pull it out".
In the opinion of the villagers surnamed Liu, the "dizi land" is not suitable for growing crops, and the output of grain is low. If the cost of fertilizer and machinery is included, it may not make ends meet.
"I heard that one mu of land outsourcing can cost about 7,000 yuan. My family does not have a'dizi land'. If there is, I would like to outsource it too," said a villager surnamed Liu.
Step up efforts to protect the black land
Except for Wuchang City, is there any phenomenon of destruction of black soil and theft of turf soil in other places?
The reporter randomly visited Lishu County in Jilin Province and Hailun City in Heilongjiang Province. During interviews with experts, local government staff and villagers, everyone unanimously stated that they had not seen or heard of similar incidents in the local area.
An expert who has studied black soil for several decades told reporters that "the phenomenon of the destruction of black soil and the robbery of turfgrass soil is still a minority."
In fact, not all black soil can be dug out turf soil.
"Lishu County and Hailun City are typical black soil regions, with flat terrain, low-lying land without rivers, lakes, and mountain valleys, and they do not have the environmental and topographical conditions for the formation of turf soil." Sui Yueyu said.
According to the reporter's understanding, the formation of turf soil is inseparable from water. It is mostly distributed in low-lying land in cold and wet areas, and is less distributed in the Northeast than other black soil types.
In my country, the amount of peat buried is about 27 billion tons, with Heilongjiang Province the most, followed by Sichuan, Jilin and Liaoning provinces.
The illegal pilfering of turf soil has gradually subsided.
However, this case has sounded the alarm for the protection of black soil.
"Grass soil can not only play a role in climate regulation, but also has a function of hydrological regulation. It is an important mineral resource in our country. Once it is destroyed, it will completely disappear." Sui Yueyu emphasized.
According to industry insiders, the pirate mining of turf soil will further thin the black soil layer and increase soil erosion, which will lead to a decline in soil fertility and a reduction in food production.
"Black land is so precious, but at the national level, no special laws and regulations have been issued for black land protection." Sui Yueyu believes that to better protect and use black land, it is imperative to promote relevant legislation as soon as possible to find out the status quo of black land protection in my country. Construct a list of black land resources, and implement dynamic monitoring of the quantity and quality of black land.
At the same time, Sui Yueyu suggested to formulate reasonable protection zones according to the degradation degree and degradation types of black soil, scientifically protect and use black soil; establish a black soil protection and utilization monitoring network with counties as a unit to check the thickness of black soil layer, soil properties, topography and landforms. , Water and soil erosion, and degraded pollution; when approving construction land, developers are required to store the stripped surface black soil so that it can be used for land reclamation and seedling bed soil in the future; establish a reasonable reward and punishment system, and vigorously To commend advanced collectives and individuals for the protection and utilization of black land, and to increase penalties for wanton destruction of black land.
——Follow-up investigation on the black land in Wuchang, Heilongjiang