China News Service, Changchun, February 22: Why is saline-alkali land management a new hope for global food security?
——Exclusive interview with Ma Wei, associate researcher at Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences
China News Service reporter Guo Jia
Soil salinization control is an internationally recognized problem. About 7% of the world's soil is affected by salinization.
In the context of maintaining global food security, strengthening the improvement and utilization of saline-alkali land and turning saline-alkali land into a "new granary" is a must-answer question for many countries.
Recently, Ma Wei, an associate researcher at the Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service's "East-West Question" to analyze China's contribution to global saline-alkali land management as the third largest area of saline-alkali land in the world, and introduced strategies for countries to jointly promote saline-alkali land management.
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
China News Service reporter: How are saline-alkali lands formed and how are they distributed around the world?
Ma Wei:
Saline-alkali soil summarizes the various soil types of saline soil and saline soil, alkaline soil and alkaline soil in the soil genetic classification.
It is widely distributed in America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.
According to incomplete statistics from UNESCO and FAO, the total area of saline-alkali lands in the world is 954 million hectares, accounting for approximately 7% of the earth's land surface area.
Due to different geographical locations and climatic conditions, the distribution of saline-alkali land in different countries and regions varies greatly. Among them, 21 countries and regions have saline-alkali land area exceeding 1/10 of the national land area, and Australia has the largest saline-alkali land area.
The formation of saline-alkali land is caused by many factors, mainly affected by natural factors such as climate, topography, hydrogeology, etc. However, about 30% of irrigated land is still affected by man-made secondary salinization, especially in developing countries, due to population With the rapid growth, the area of cultivated land continues to decrease, and a large amount of forests, grasslands, wetlands, etc. are reclaimed as cultivated land, destroying the original vegetation and soil structure, leading to soil salinization.
On May 6, 2022, white cranes foraged in the wetlands of Zhenlai County.
Zhenlai County was once known as the "Great Sea" due to frequent droughts, raging sandstorms and numerous saline-alkali lands.
Photo by Pan Shengyu
China News Service reporter: What is China’s basic experience in managing saline-alkali lands? Please talk about your experience working in western Jilin Province.
Ma Wei:
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, China has organized multiple rounds of large-scale comprehensive saline-alkali land management and reserve cultivated land development operations. Currently, eight major systems have been formed in the comprehensive utilization of saline-alkali land, including soil salt discharge technology and soil biological organic salt control and soil improvement technology. More than 40 practical technologies.
In terms of varieties, China has promoted more than 50 salt-alkali tolerant crop varieties.
These scientific and technological achievements have achieved good results in actual promotion and application.
From 2020 to 2022, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs guided eight provinces to carry out saline-alkali farmland management pilot projects, with a cumulative implementation area of 2.4 million acres in three years.
There are two main technical routes to manage saline-alkali lands in China: “adapting crops to the land” and “cultivating to the land”.
The former is an engineering technology with soil improvement as its core, that is, by adding irrigation and drainage facilities or applying soil amendments and other physical and chemical means to reduce soil salinity to a level that does not affect crop production; the latter is based on the selection of salt-alkali tolerant crops. The core biological breeding technology is to select salt-alkali tolerant crop varieties and plant them directly without improving the soil.
China’s practical experience shows that in order to transform saline-alkali land into fertile soil and fertile land, a combination of both is needed.
On November 25, 2021, in Xianghe Ecological Park, Xuwei New District, Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, staff were managing and protecting three-dimensionally grown tomato seedlings in the greenhouse.
Xianghe Ecological Park in Xuwei New District, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province was originally a large area of saline-alkali land.
Photo by Geng Yuhe
Northeastern soda saline-alkali land, one of the five major types of areas in China, is mainly distributed in Baicheng and Songyuan in western Jilin, as well as Qiqihar and Daqing in Heilongjiang. It is one of the three largest soda saline-alkali lands in the world.
The soil saline-alkali composition in this area is mainly sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate. It has high pH value, high salt content, high sodium ion content, low organic matter content, and low soil permeability. It is the most difficult type of saline-alkali land management in China.
No matter which technical route or improvement measures are taken, adapting measures to local conditions is the key. This experience is also applicable around the world.
The place where I work is Lai, Baicheng Town.
Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences has proven through repeated experiments and practice that planting rice is one of the effective measures to improve soda saline-alkali land. In 1989, it proposed the saline-alkali land improvement method of "using rice to control alkali, using rice to control waterlogging, and using rice to get rich". Effective technical route.
On July 8, 2022, at the experimental station set up by the Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Lai County, Baicheng Town, new salt-alkali tolerant rice varieties were growing well.
Photo by Ma Wei
The reason for choosing this technical route is mainly because western Jilin is full of marshes and lakes, and rivers such as Huolin River, Taoer River, Lalin River, and Yitong River converge here in a centripetal manner.
It is against this background that we have summarized eight words in practice—use water to determine the land and divert water for irrigation. It is these eight words that laid the foundation for the success of this set of technical routes.
In recent years, we have put more emphasis on integrating various technologies and measures in saline-alkali land management to form "good land + good seeds + good methods" to achieve optimal results.
Since 2007, with the implementation of major land consolidation projects in western Jilin, domestic and foreign scientific research institutions and improvement enterprises in Jilin Province have carried out systematic research and development in the selection of salt-alkali tolerant varieties, soil improvement technology, and resistant cultivation.
In 2015, the "Using Rice to Treat Alkali and Improve Soil and Increase Grain" technology model jointly developed by the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award.
Paddy fields in Zhenlai County, Jilin Province welcome a bumper harvest.
Photo by Pan Shengyu
Reporter from China News Service: Is it possible to turn large areas of saline-alkali land in the world into fertile farmland?
Ma Wei:
This is completely achievable.
In order to cope with the impact of the increasing number of saline-alkali lands on agricultural production, land value and water resources every year, many countries in the world are taking active actions and creating many practices and measures for the development and management of saline-alkali lands.
For example, Australia uses soil and agronomic management measures to slow down soil salinization and sodium content, and also pays attention to the evaluation, screening and breeding of salt-tolerant, sodium-tolerant and ion toxicity-resistant crops; India uses gypsum to improve alkaline soil and uses rice Fish farming to solve the dual problems of poor drainage and salinization of degraded coastal soil; the Netherlands, Israel and other countries use comprehensive soil management technology to control and reduce salt; Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries focus on breeding to adapt to severe saline-alkali conditions In terms of new plant varieties; Egypt analyzes saline-alkali soil microorganisms and uses microbial resources to improve soil quality.
Practice has shown that no matter which method is used, rational development and management of saline-alkali land can not only increase the amount of cultivated land, but also greatly improve the ecological environment and maintain the stability of the ecosystem. It can be said that it kills multiple birds with one stone.
Taking the soda saline-alkali land in Northeast China as an example, after several generations of development and management, it has become an important reserve resource development area for cultivated land in China and an important contribution area to Jilin's "100 billion kilograms of grain" production capacity construction project.
For example, in 2023, the rice planting area in Zhenlai County reached 1.55 million acres, making it the county with the largest paddy fields in Jilin. The total rice production was 2.05 billion kilograms, ranking first in the province's rice production for 5 consecutive years.
Paddy fields in Zhenlai County, Jilin Province welcome a bumper harvest.
Photo by Pan Shengyu
China News Service reporter: What role do you think China should play in promoting saline-alkali land management? How should countries around the world strengthen international cooperation?
Ma Wei:
Frankly speaking, China uses 9% of the world's arable land and 6% of the freshwater resources to feed nearly 20% of the world's population, achieving a goal of going from "not having enough to eat" to "being well fed" and then "eating well" China has made historic changes and achieved historic achievements, which in itself is a huge contribution to maintaining world food security.
When it comes to saline-alkali land management, no country in the world can be called the best. All countries are constantly exploring and trying. However, due to various reasons such as geography, climate, politics, and economy, each country has its own unique advantages. and challenges.
China not only draws experience from other countries around the world, but also provides useful experience to other countries around the world, such as introducing specific rice seed resources from Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United States and other countries, discovering salt-alkali tolerance genes, and creating new salt-alkali tolerance germplasm.
On May 20, 2022, staff planted rice in the experimental field in Tianjin. The rice they planted was a new type of high-stem and high-yielding "giant rice" that was developed by Yuan Longping's team and was super salt-alkali tolerant.
Photo by Tong Yu
In recent years, China has provided many advanced agricultural technologies and experiences to the Belt and Road countries and developing countries, including those in saline-alkali land management. The application results of these technologies and experiences have been good.
I think another thing is crucial. We must actively build an international exchange platform. In addition to general international exchange conferences, we can also explore closer cooperation, such as establishing joint laboratories and making full use of the joint strengths of our respective directors. Solve technical problems, etc.
(over)
Interviewee profile:
Ma Wei, associate researcher at the Rice Research Institute of the Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Jilin Provincial Science and Technology Commissioner, has devoted himself to research in the fields of rice stress physiology and stress cultivation technology for many years. He has persisted in the saline-alkali wasteland in western Jilin for ten consecutive years. In 2022, he was awarded the "Jilin The honorary titles of "The Most Beautiful Scientific and Technological Workers in the Province" and "The Good People and the Most Beautiful Workers in Jilin".
Published 38 scientific papers and edited "Practical Guidance Manual for Rice Production in Jilin Province", etc.