The preciousness of the black land makes it compared to "the giant panda in the cultivated land", but the more important reason is related to the "sub-health state" of the black land.
"The characteristics of black land degradation are that it has become 'thin', 'thin', and 'harder', and the area has become 'smaller'," said Guan Yixin, a researcher at the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. , salinization, soil erosion and other serious trends, has reached the point where it is necessary to control.
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On August 1, 2022, the "Black Land Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Black Land Protection Law") came into effect.
This is the only law in the world that legislates to protect the black land at the national level.
"The passing of the Black Soil Protection Law makes our scientific researchers who are engaged in black soil protection particularly excited." Liu Jie, president of the Heilongjiang Black Soil Conservation and Utilization Research Institute, said that he had participated in several special research conferences to solicit opinions on legislation before. But when I actually saw the vote passed, I was still very excited.
In Liu Jie's view, this is a "Little Kuailing" law that specifically protects the black land, and is highly maneuverable.
"Article 38 not only includes general provisions such as legislative purpose and scope of application, but also provides for the investigation and monitoring of black soil resources, scientific and technological support, quantitative protection measures, and quality improvement measures."
"The content is very practical and comprehensive." Zhang Xuewu, a major grain grower in Shuangliao City, Jilin Province, studied it carefully as soon as the black land protection law was introduced, and he was full of expectations, "I believe it will increase everyone's attention to black land protection. But he also admitted that farmers are more concerned about whether they can really put it in place, because "it is related to whether we can hold the rice bowl in our hands."
It is imminent to protect "giant pandas in arable land"
"When the black soil is fertilized, you squeeze the soil and the oil will sprout. One tael of black soil and two taels of oil will germinate." The total area of black soil in my country is 1.09 million square kilometers, and the black soil area including it is only 4.4% in the world. It accounts for less than 7% of the global land area, but the black soil is the most fertile soil in the world.
"One out of every three bowls of rice in the country comes from the northeast." said Sui Yueyu, a researcher at the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The black soil region in northeast my country involves Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning and parts of the eastern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The output and transfer volume account for 1/4 and 1/3 of the national total, which is the "ballast stone" and "stabilizer" of my country's grain production.
Fallen leaves, dead branches... After years of accumulation and precipitation, black soil is gradually formed.
According to Sui Yueyu, the reason why black soil is "black" is that it is covered with a layer of black or dark black humus. The soil is loose and rich in organic matter, making it the most suitable for farming.
Studies have shown that it takes hundreds of years to form a layer of black soil with a thickness of 1 cm.
The preciousness of the black land makes it compared to "the giant panda in the cultivated land", but the more important reason is related to the "sub-health state" of the black land.
"The characteristics of black land degradation are that it has become 'thin', 'thin', and 'harder', and the area has become 'smaller'," said Guan Yixin, a researcher at the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. , salinization, soil erosion and other serious trends, has reached the point where it is necessary to control.
The "Northeast Black Soil White Paper (2020)" released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that in the past 60 years, the soil organic matter of the black soil cultivated layer in Northeast China has dropped by one-third, and by 50% in some areas.
The positioning observation of Heilongjiang Soil and Water Conservation Institute shows that the annual soil loss thickness of sloping farmland is 0.6 to 1 cm.
Sui Yueyu believes that the long-term overdraft of soil health in the black soil area is due to the excessive reclamation, heavy use and light breeding, large water and fertilizer, and excessive application of agrochemical products in individual areas.
Guan Yixin pointed out that it is understandable for farmers to rely on their fields for food and to pursue high yields. However, if a large amount of land is destroyed due to this, the benefits will be based on the predatory or predatory use of the land.
Taking peanut planting with high yield as an example, it is dry and windy in spring. Turning the soil will exacerbate the loss of soil, and farmers must turn the soil to harvest peanuts.
According to statistics, a piece of land planted with peanuts will lose 5 to 10 cm of topsoil due to wind erosion in spring. If planted all year round, it will cause great soil loss.
On the other hand, illegal digging, indiscriminate digging of black soil, and illegal sale of black soil are also a reason for the loss of black soil.
For example, in a city in the northeast, more than 90,000 square meters of black land has been illegally excavated, and a black industry chain has been formed. It is publicly sold on the e-commerce platform at a price of 0.5 yuan to a few yuan per kilogram. It is called "Nature's Porter".
Under such circumstances, it is very necessary to strengthen legal norms and publicity and education.
For example, the Black Land Protection Law specifically states that those who dig black soil illegally or indiscriminately will be severely punished in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and regulations on land management. A fine of more than one time but not more than three times the amount, etc.
Xie Jianhua, director of the cultivated land quality monitoring and protection center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, emphasized at a symposium on the protection and utilization of black land in Northeast China recently that the black land protection law "determines the protection, utilization, governance, restoration and other activities of black land in the form of law. Implementing the principles of comprehensive protection, comprehensive management, and systematic restoration provides a legal guarantee for protecting and making good use of black land, a precious land resource.”
Solve the problems of "use" and "support"
"Our country has supported 18% of the world's population with 7% of the world's arable land, creating a miracle in the world." Sui Yueyu said, behind the miracle is that my country's arable land cannot be protected by no-tillage and fallow protection measures.
Therefore, "the key to the protection of black soil is how to solve the problems of 'use' and 'support'." Guan Yixin said.
In the 1960s, state farms in Heilongjiang began to experiment with no-till wheat sowing.
Guan Yixin told the China Youth Daily and my country Youth Daily that although there have been many related explorations in our country, the loss of black soil has gradually become the consensus of the academic community. No.
Conservation tillage technology originated in the United States in the 1960s. It is a soil protection and utilization technology with the main characteristics of straw mulching and no-tillage. It can maintain soil moisture, prevent soil wind erosion and water erosion, and cultivate soil fertility.
Since 2002, it has been officially established and promoted in my country, and it is currently the most widely used black soil protection technology in the world.
At present, a variety of effective conservation tillage modes have been formed in Northeast China, including the Jilin "pear tree mode" characterized by straw mulching, less tillage and no-tillage, and the Heilongjiang "Hailun mode" characterized by straw crushing, deep ploughing and deep burying. ".
However, it was not smooth at the beginning. Until the end of 2008, the promotion area was only more than 40 million mu, accounting for 4% of the dry farming areas in the north.
Sui Yueyu believes that one of the biggest difficulties at that time was to change the concept of local farmers.
In the hinterland of the Songnen Plain in Northeast China and the core area of black soil in the cold region, Hailun City, known as the "Selenium Capital of Black Soil in China", was identified as a pilot county for implementing the black soil protection and utilization system in 2018.
After years of hard work, the average yield of corn in the black land protection project area has increased by 50 kilograms per mu, the yield of soybeans has increased by 22.2 kilograms, and the yield of rice has increased by 40 kilograms.
"In the beginning, everyone didn't understand why the black soil was protected, and they thought whether it was protected or not, it was still black soil." said Li Haibing, chairman of the Liufenghe Miscellaneous Grain Planting Cooperative in Hailun City. At first, the farmers in the project area, including himself Without much awareness of protecting black land, it is not easy for the older generation to change the traditional farming concept.
Li Haibing mentioned that the older generation believed that if the ground was too deep, the ground would become cold and the yield would be low, but when the typhoon hit in 2020, the corn in Li Haibing’s field did not fall, and almost all of the other farmers next to him fell. "There is no other reason, but it has something to do with the protection of black soil! When I was planting, I listened to the instructions of the technical guidance to dig deeply and loosen deeply, and I also selected excellent varieties and plucked the roots deeply."
According to Li Haibing, the quality of Jilin corn is generally considered to be higher than that of Heilongjiang corn due to high temperature and geographical advantages. Generally speaking, the purchase price of Jilin corn will be about 10 yuan higher per ton, but the corn he grows not only has high yield, but also The quality is also good, and it is sold at the price of Jilin corn.
"Looking at 'Jiebi'er' in the countryside means that farmers are looking at their neighbors." Sui Yueyu called "new farmers" born in the 1985s such as Li Haibing "smart farmers", believing that they have feelings, enthusiasm, and enthusiasm. method, can quickly accept new technology and new ideas, play a very good driving role, and the fact is the same.
"Everyone didn't recognize it at the beginning and felt that the cost was high. For example, normal land preparation is 20 yuan per mu, but if the straw is returned to the field, the cost of one mu of land may be 40 yuan." Li Haibing said that he increased production and income that year. , and after calculating with everyone, we found that the benefits are relatively high. "Now small farmers and some cooperatives are also implementing it, and the response is very good."
Conservation tillage in Northeast China has achieved remarkable results
The land does not live up to the goodwill of the people.
Zhang Xuewu told a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that before 2010, the black soil in Shuangliao City was white and yellow in color, dry and hard. "Now that the local dust is under control, the black velvet soil is back.
Shuangliao City, Jilin Province is located on the border between Songliao Plain and Horqin Grassland. On the Liaohe Plain, where the east and west Liaohe Rivers converge, it belongs to a typical arid and semi-arid area. 80% of the arable land is sandy soil, and there are many sandstorms every year. Difficulty in sowing and germination.
To this end, Shuangliao began to actively promote the experimental and demonstration work of conservation tillage.
"After planting, we became the laughing stock of all townships and villages." Wu Guanjun, an engineer at the Shuangliao Agricultural Machinery Station, said that it is customary for the local people to "cuddle twice" the straw and then burn it in a pile, and try to clean it up as much as possible. "Every spring or autumn, everywhere is The fire is burning, and the smoke is lingering." In the test field, the straws were not clear and the stalks could not be ridged and sown directly, and the farmers did not believe that crops would grow.
"Practice brings true knowledge, and good technology is not afraid of being questioned." According to Wu Guanjun, the brothers Zhang Xuewen and Zhang Xuewu in Crouching Tiger Town were the first batch of large grain farmers who adopted the straw-returning conservation farming method.
It was dry and windy that year, and some farmers even lost the seeds in their fields.
In 2008, Guan Yixin led the team to develop the first domestic no-tillage seeder.
In 2010, Shuangliao Agricultural Machinery Promotion Station purchased 8 Kangda no-till planters using the Jilin Province Demonstration Project.
"This machine can complete a complete set of operations such as ditching and fertilizing on the straw ground at one time, and the seedlings are neat, full, and strong." Zhang Xuewu said that the investment per hectare has been reduced by nearly 2,000 yuan, but the output can be increased by more than 2,000 kilograms.
The following year, not only cooperatives were the first to purchase no-till planters, but even “retail investors” began to buy them. Shuangliao added 70 no-till machines that year, and achieved a no-till rate of over 90% in 2018.
At present, there are more than 200 professional cooperatives with no-till planters in the city. Compared with traditional planting methods, the city can save up to 300 million yuan in cost and increase efficiency every year.
"Many farmers do this even without subsidies. Shuangliao has transitioned from policy guidance to farmers' conscious behavior." Guan Yixin sighed.
Wu Guanjun said that the number of cattle and sheep in the village used to be scarce, but now animal husbandry has also sprung up: after the autumn harvest, the yellow straw on the surface, the cornfields have become natural pastures, and cattle and sheep are everywhere.
"In the past, 1 hectare of land used an average of 1 ton of chemical fertilizer, but now it has been reduced to about 0.8 tons." Wu Guanjun said that now the soil organic matter has increased, the original saline-alkali land has become fertile land, and earthworms that have not been seen for many years have also appeared in large numbers.
"According to our statistics, the yield per hectare can now increase by more than 50% compared with a decade ago."
In the Northeast Paddy Field Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative in Fujin City, Heilongjiang Province, grower Liu Chun also felt the same way.
He said that with the continuous introduction of relevant support and guidance policies and vigorous publicity by the government, he never understood that he would gradually become a supporter and beneficiary of black land protection.
Unexpectedly, in a few years, the black land has really "changed".
"In the past, a handful of soil would form a ball, but now the soil is still loose." Liu Chun said that returning the straw to the field is more "vigorous". In the past, more than 1,400 kilograms of chemical fertilizer was needed for a single land. With the increase of organic matter content, the amount of chemical fertilizers has decreased significantly, with an average reduction of about 200 kilograms.
The official implementation of the black land protection law is of great significance to Liu Chun: "Everyone has the responsibility to protect the black land. With the relevant laws and regulations, I feel a sense of responsibility. Only by protecting this land, the future will be better. to get better.”
Blossoming everywhere, my country's black soil protection enters a new era
"Outline of Northeast Black Land Protection Plan (2017-2030)", "Northeast Black Land Conservation Farming Action Plan (2020-2025)", "National Black Land Protection Project Implementation Plan (2021-2025)"... In recent years, In order to effectively protect and utilize black land, the state has issued a series of relevant policy documents.
At the same time, in order to better implement the national black land protection policy, the three northeastern provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have successively issued local laws, regulations and documents such as the Regulations on the Protection of Black Land in Jilin Province and the Regulations on the Protection and Utilization of Black Land in Heilongjiang Province.
In recent years, technical models such as "Pear Tree Model" and "Longjiang Model", which have been popularized and applied in Northeast China, have achieved good results.
Sun Guojie, Section Chief of the Farmland Construction Management Section of the Agriculture and Rural Bureau of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, told the China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that in 2015, Jiamusi City began to establish a pilot program for black land protection. mu.
At the same time, the "Three Rivers Model" of black soil protection with the core technologies of rice straw burial, rotary tillage, and stubble stirring is promoted and applied, and the rich straw resources are used to fertilize the soil and improve the quality of cultivated land.
"In 2021, the city's comprehensive utilization rate of crop straw returning to the field will reach 95.17%, becoming the main model for comprehensive utilization of crop straw."
According to Sun Guojie, in the process of promoting straw returning to the field, the Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs also actively introduced and studied the use of efficient and fast straw starter to solve the problem of straw rot caused by low temperature, thereby further improving the soil structure, increasing the content of organic matter in the land, and enhancing soil storage. Water and fertilizer capacity.
Under the application of this model, the soil organic matter content of cultivated land in Jiamusi City Experimental Demonstration Zone has increased by more than 3% compared with 2017, the thickness of the ploughed layer in dry fields has reached more than 30 cm, the thickness of ploughed layers in paddy fields has reached more than 20 cm, and the quality of cultivated land has increased on average compared with 2017. 0.5 level or more.
All things are born in the soil, there is soil and there is food.
On June 24, the 35th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress passed the Black Land Protection Law.
"It points out the direction for strengthening the protection and utilization of black land in accordance with the law in the future, and fully demonstrates my country's firm attitude and determination to protect black land." Sui Yueyu said.
"I see the hope that the black land is getting better and better, and I feel a great responsibility and a glorious mission." When talking about the introduction of the black land protection law, Zhang Yafei couldn't hide her excitement.
As a "soil expert" who has dealt with black land for many years, he believes that this is of great educational and reference significance not only for the protection of black land, but also for the protection of cultivated land across the country.
Heilongjiang Beidahuang Agricultural Co., Ltd. Qixing Branch, located in the hinterland of Sanjiang Plain, is an important grain production base in my country.
As the head of the company's scientific and technological information, Zhang Yafei and his team have been exploring how to use new technologies to make good use of black soil and realize a virtuous circle of cultivated land protection and utilization.
It is reported that the quality of the company's arable land has increased by an average of 0.1 grades in recent years, and the content of soil organic matter has increased by 0.01 percentage points every year.
"Based on the application of the full-area straw returning technology, we have explored the application of soil testing and formula fertilization technology, dry field conservation tillage, and green pesticides to replace traditional pesticides," Zhang Yafei said. 30%-40%, and the decomposition rate of dry field crop straw can reach 40%-45% in the current season.”
Xie Jianhua pointed out that in the next step, the four northeastern provinces (autonomous regions) must implement the hard task of the black soil protection project in 2022, cover 100 million mu of conservation tillage, and return 20 million mu of organic fertilizer to the field, and continue to work in the typical black soil area of the Northeast. More than 40 of the 83 counties (cities, districts, and banners) have been selected to carry out the protection and utilization projects of black land in Northeast China, and the protection tasks of more than 4 million mu have been implemented in a concentrated and contiguous manner according to local conditions.
"I hope that all localities and departments can effectively learn and use the black land protection law, implement the strictest cultivated land protection system, mobilize the most extensive forces to protect and make good use of the black land, and implement the legal provisions on every inch of the black land to consolidate food. Stable production is the foundation to ensure national food security and ecological security." Sui Yueyu said.
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Wei Wan Han Rong Source: China Youth Daily