Turning Deserts Green
China is transforming deserts into fertile land using straw grids, tree planting, and science-backed soil solutions. A global model to fight desertification.
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China Is Turning Deserts Green With Straw, Trees, and Science
Turning Deserts Green,One nation that has a reputation for breaking down barriers and accomplishing seemingly impossible tasks is China. Therefore, their repeated actions are not surprising.
Decades of desertification have exacerbated dust storms, caused crop failures, and caused economic hardship in the country’s vast landscapes. China has been actively combating this desertification on its territory as a result.
This raises the question of what the best way to stop a desert from expanding is in the world. Well, it is not as sophisticated as you may believe. Instead, it is a grid and a piece of straw.
If China did not come up with a wonderful solution, things would not be the same. And we will soon discover what that is.Let us first examine the reasons behind China’s decision to tackle their escalating desert issue.
Therefore, in 2000, desertification had seized nearly 30% of China’s total land area. Basically, a lot of fertile land turned into dry, desolate terrain. And the Gobi Desert was one startling factor that fueled this calamity.
It was growing at a rate of roughly 1,390 square miles annually at the time. Every 12 months, sand swallows an area about the size of Rhode Island. Regretfully, the consequences were not limited to distant locations.
Cities like Beijing were frequently overrun by dust storms known as Huang Sha. Entire streets were covered in fine sand as a result of this phenomenon, which drastically decreased visibility.
Turning Deserts Green,The Kubuchi Desert in Inner Mongolia was also among the most severely affected regions.covering an area of 7,180 square miles. It was not always a failing ecosystem in Kubuchi. But the area was destroyed by decades of deforestation and overgrazing.
By the late 20th century, all that was left were miles of dust and sand dunes. Farmland dried up and winds carried sand into houses, forcing entire rural communities on the edge of the desert to relocate.
Once-supporting rivers for agriculture became smaller or vanished completely. Additionally, moving dunes posed a threat to bury key lines like highways and railroads. It looked hopeless. What then did China do?
The Chinese government understood that this was not just an environmental problem.Instead, it posed an existential risk to regional stability, economic growth, and food security. Official data from 2016 to 2020 shows that the nation created green spaces on roughly 21.7 million acres of desertified land.
The Chinese did not stop there, of course. They planted an additional 9.3 million acres of forest in 2022. And China took it a step farther in 2023. Trees were planted on over 9.8 million acres of degraded land.
China’s efforts to combat desertification and increase tree planting are truly remarkable. Remarkably, they dedicate a whole day to planting trees. The 12th of March is recognized as the National Tree Planting Day.
In essence, this project supports China’s 10-year tree planting goal of planting millions of trees. This is the day that many common people go to arid areas to plant a new plant. It is a truly awesome occasion.
The populace takes an active role in preventing desertification in the nation. Fantastic, do not you think so? Trees are wonderful, but the problem is that sand can shift. Nothing really holds the billions of tons of small particles scattered around the desert in place.
The Chinese are planting a lot of trees because of this. Their roots prevent the sand from shifting, causing the desert to continue contracting rather than expanding. In contrast to dirt, sand is mobile.
Turning Deserts Green,However, many plants just cannot survive in these conditions. They will either be buried beneath mounds of sand or the wind will expose their roots. In general, the plants are short-lived.
Additionally, keep in mind that nothing can stop the strong winds in the deserts, which is why the sand continues to move. It can get rather windy, and plants are also harmed by such strong winds.
Although sand dunes and aid sites frequently do not have much to offer, many plants planted in sandy areas still require some nutrients to thrive. The foundation of China’s green walls simply deteriorates as a result.
It is clear that planting trees alone was insufficient.Therefore, engineering the sand itself was the next step in China’s anti-desertification policy. I am aware that the idea of designing sand seems a little absurd.
It may sound ridiculous, but the Chinese actually did that. China began implementing what are known as straw checkerboard barriers as early as the 1950s. What are they? They are, in fact, a nearly infallible means of avoiding desertification.
A clever method for sowing straw in arid environments is being used by knowledgeable Chinese people. It is a really original concept. Let me describe how it operates.Thus, when crops like rice, wheat, or other comparable crops ripen, they split into two pieces.
The plant’s ears, the material on top, and all other parts. The ears are separated from the remainder of the plant as soon as harvest time arrives. Although the ears are edible, we are more interested in the plant’s other components.
That is the stalk, the leaves, you see. Usually, it is let to dry on the field. We get straw that way. China has an abundance of what are essentially dead, dried-up vegetation. Over 207 million tons of rice were produced on more than 74 million acres of rice farms as of 2024.
The International Rice Research Institute states that the proportion of rice to straw is around one to one. Thus, we can conclude that the nation harvested more than 200 million tons of rice-only straw in 2024.
In total, China harvests roughly 1 billion tons of straw annually. Now, you may be wondering how straw may assist reverse desertification.
To make it resemble a massive checkerboard made of trenches dug in the sand, it is first laid out in a grid pattern on sand dunes and other arid regions. The straw cells create a kind of organic wall.
Therefore, each straw cell is planted with plants that can survive the harshness of the desert.The sand dunes turn green with grass as the straw breaks down and decomposes over time, creating a kind of natural fertilizer.
These cells will significantly increase the likelihood that desert plants will survive, but they will not instantly transform the desert into a verdant forest. Straw grids can act as wind barriers to assist vulnerable plants survive and,
when placed correctly, can stop almost all sand movement—up to 99% in some cases. It is a gamecher method. But it is not a simple operation, and it is certainly not inexpensive. In addition, participants must endure the scorching desert and its severe weather.
It is really demanding and requires a lot of manual labor.China made the decision to be innovative. Workers now lay long straw ropes rather than little bundles of straw. These are manufactured in factories, delivered to the location, and set up by machines.
There is a 60% increase in process efficiency. The lifespan of each rope is up to six years, which is twice as long as previous techniques. Intriguingly, they can also be reused. If they do not deteriorate, that is.
The entire rope slips smoothly out of the sand when you pull one end. Additionally, China has created devices that can simultaneously dig trenches, spread straw, and cover them with sand. Four to six people’s worth of labor can be completed by these machines.
Additionally, there is a hybrid strategy. While a machine presses and buries the straw, humans dig and fill the trenches. There is more to straw grids than meets the eye. Extreme conditions have been used to prove them.
The Baoto Lanju Railway is among the best examples. Stretching across the Tangar Desert, it was constructed in 1958. Because of straw, it is still standing strong even though many people thought it would be covered in sand in a few decades.
In 1988, the method was recognized with a national scientific award. The Zong sandfixation forest farm was regarded as a triumph in desert management by 1994. Other nations started using the technique.
Later, China constructed a highway across the desert using the same approach.In 2022, the expressway that connected Jeangi and Ching Dong Xiao opened. It traveled through arid desert for about 76 miles.
The road is protected by gravel strips, stone barriers, and straw grids. Along the path, there are now more tourist spots. Other important highways, such as one that crosses the Taklamakan Desert, also known as the Sea of Death, are now protected by the same straw techniques.
To put it briefly, China is resolutely combating desertification. They are not giving up and are making significant strides, from planting trees to creating sophisticated machinery to installing millions of straw grids.
But it soon became apparent that planting trees and putting up straw grids were insufficient.The actual conflict had to start below the surface. Some substances known as biorusts then came into play.
Sand particles are held together by biorusts, which are microscopic living communities that cover the surface of the sand in a thin coating. They thus create stable land from loose shifting dunes.
These crusts take decades to form naturally in the wild. China, however, was unwilling to wait that long. Therefore, researchers at organizations such as Inner Mongolia Agricultural University and the Gin Jang Institute of Ecology
and Geography created lab-grown inoculants to expedite the process. When sprayed on sand dunes, their inventive biorusts quickly cover the surface.It is amazing that they were able to develop something that usually takes years in just a few months.
In addition, they work incredibly well. Even in the absence of vegetation, they decreased wind erosion by as much as 80%. Additionally, they improve the soil’s capacity to retain moisture. Above all,
they establish the biological basis for the germination and establishment of desert plants. In shifting sand that has not been treated, this is practically impossible. Also, biorusts are capable of so much more.
The first is that they do not require watering. They are also quite simple to maintain. In the right circumstances, they can even replicate themselves. China has increased the usage of biorusts in vast desert regions,
including as the Kubuchi and Muus deserts, as a result of their success.It is important to keep in mind, too, that even with the encouraging outcomes of experimental techniques like biochar—which should not be mistaken with biorusts—it is still not extensively used throughout China.
However, if it succeeds, it might end up being a worldwide solution. Globally, China is now sharing this technology with African countries, especially those in the Sahel, where the countries are facing severe threats from desertification.
Biorusts guarantee long-term stability while straw checkerboards offer instant comfort, demonstrating that sometimes the smallest organisms can have the greatest impact.
Thus, it is evident that the globe is also benefiting from the wild inventive inventions of the Chinese.Some people may believe that China has found all the answers to their desertification problem, but they have not finished yet.
Tree planting and straw grids are examples of surface-level solutions that could only go so far. The Chinese then stepped up their game after realizing this. This led scientists to investigate a completely novel strategy that involved changing the sand itself.
Scientists from organizations like Chongqing Jaoong University investigated something involving the subterranean burying of plant biomass in test plots such as the Ulan Bo Desert in Inner Mongolia.
Turning Deserts Green,A biodegradable cellulose binding agent derived from plant matter was combined with this biomass.The substance formed tiny air pockets and organic materials inside the sand while binding the particles together like a natural glue.
It mimicked the composition of actual soil. The change was just astounding. A sponge-like semistructured substrate that could hold water, withstand erosion, and promote plant growth replaced the once-arid, changing environment.
Crops like corn, tomatoes, peppers, and even sunflowers may flourish in the field with little watering. And previously, that was not conceivable. It is truly amazing how creative Chinese people can be.
These findings were supported by laboratory tests. Caroxymethyl cellulose, or CMC, and biochar, a type of charcoal, were used in experiments that revealed a 36% improvement in the soil’s ability to hold water.
Turning Deserts Green,That is not all, though. When compared to untreated desert sand, the soil’s aggregate stability—or how well it clumps together—improved significantly, and its moisture retention increased by 30%. More significantly, this artificially created desert soil demonstrated self-sufficiency.
Plots started regenerating microbial life after one or two growing seasons, progressively increasing their own organic matter. In historically dead environments, this approach permits agricultural productivity to continue as long as groundwater use is managed responsibly.
Turning Deserts Green, This strategy is currently intended to be widely used in a number of arid areas, such as Ulan Bo, Kubuchi, and portions of Xing Jang. It should complement other techniques like tree planting, biorust inoculation,
and straw checkerboards to provide a complete solution for turning sand into soil. China’s efforts to address the issue of desertification are visible to the entire globe. We must, with all honesty, give them their flowers.the we can it Turning Deserts Green.
They are working so hard. China’s fight against desertification has produced tangible, observable effects within the last ten years.
China has restored about 70 million acres of degraded land through reforestation initiatives like the Kubuchi restoration and the Three North Shelter Belt. These rehabilitated regions are now safe havens for local flora and fauna and act as organic barriers against desert expansion.
The dramatic decrease in dust storms is one of the most obvious indicators of success. Between 2009 and 2014, storm frequency decreased by 20% in northern cities like Beijing, which were previously suffocated by yellow dust.Turning Deserts Green
Data on air quality and satellite imagery support the trend. The soil is more stable and the air is considerably cleaner. Additionally, the straw cell approach is a straightforward yet essential instrument that has had a significant influence They do a lot Turning Deserts Green.
They trap moisture and lessen wind erosion, to start. Once more, they establish microhabitats that allow native plants to grow. Not to mention that the straw reduces evaporation and offers shade, all of which are beneficial to the survival of early seedlings.
Today, Turning Deserts Green,people use this technique all over the world. Everyone seems to be trying to emulate China’s success, from Central Asia to West Africa. Furthermore, there are economic as well as environmental advantages.
Formerly desolate areas now sustain thriving green economies in regions such as the Kubuchi Desert.Nowadays, tourist destinations like Kubuchi receive over a million visitors annually, which surely boosts the nation’s GDP.
The ecosystem services produced by the restored areas in Kubuchi and Muus total more than 500 billion yuan, or roughly 77.6 billion USD. It is a cumulative project value, though. It explains gains through improved flood control, rich soil, carbon storage, and cleaner air.Then follow Turning Deserts Green rules.
In essence, these figures demonstrate that restoring nature is free. Large returns are expected from this long-term investment. I should also mention that China’s extensive experience influences current global strategies.
Turning Deserts Green Asian and African nations collaborate with Chinese specialists to employ techniques such as biorusts and straw checkerboards, among many others.These collaborations aid other areas in their fight against desertification.
China has essentially demonstrated that deserts are still alive. They can be revived with the correct equipment and sustained dedication and suggest every one Turning Deserts Green.
How do you feel about the desert transformation in China? Turning Deserts Green,Remember to hit “like” and “share” for more articles like this one, and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Conclusion:
“China’s progress in turning deserts green proves that with the right tools, even the harshest landscapes can thrive again.”