China News Service, Ningxia Yanchi, October 29 (Reporter Yu Jing) On October 29, the reporter visited the Shabianzi Ecological Management Demonstration Area on the southern edge of the Mu Us Sandy Land in Yanchi County, Ningxia, and saw that one-meter-square wheat straw grids were laid out on the sand dunes. Caragana and salix grew within the grids, and the mobile sand dunes were fixed.
The data picture shows the Shabianzi Ecological Management Demonstration Zone in Yanchi County, Ningxia. Photo courtesy of Yanchi County Party Committee Propaganda Department
Sun Guo, who has been engaged in sand control work in Yanchi for nearly 30 years, said that in the early years, the area was dominated by clear sand and the sand damage was serious. There is a local saying that "one wind blows every year, blowing from spring to winter." In the 1970s and 1980s, more than 70% of the population in Yanchi was located in a sandy area, and the cultivated land was located in a sandy area. Sandstorms often buried crops and surrounded sheep pens. Shabianzi was a typical area affected by local sandstorms. The local area gradually promotes the wheat straw grid sand fixation method to curb the movement of sand dunes.
The average annual rainfall in Yanchi is 288 mm, and the sandy vegetation relies on natural precipitation to survive. Local desert control personnel concluded that grass grids can be laid out all year round, and grass seed sowing is concentrated in the rainy season from July to September every year. The seeds are easy to survive after rainfall. If the window period is missed, it is difficult for the seedlings to survive.
The methods of sand control operations have changed in recent years. In the early days, we relied on manual transportation of seedlings and pulling wires for positioning; now, drone seeding and mechanical reseeding are used to improve operational efficiency. A group of villagers who were originally grazing herds became forest rangers. Currently, there are 1,180 forest rangers in Yanchi County, who are equipped with video surveillance systems to carry out patrols and management.
To the west of Shabianzi, a protective forest belt of more than 50 square kilometers has been built in the northern part of Yanchi County. Pinus sylvestris, elm trees, locust trees and native desert shrubs are planted with reclaimed water for irrigation. Local sand control follows the idea of "mainly grass, protected by shrubs, and planted with scattered trees", and priority is given to the use of drought-resistant native shrubs. The continuous forest land surrounding the county forms an ecological circle of nearly 100,000 acres. By the end of 2023, Yanchi has completed the treatment of more than 2 million acres of desertified land, and 1.5 million acres of degraded grassland has been restored.
After the ecological improvement, the local industry developed based on psomatrophic plants. After the Caragana stubble is harvested and processed into forage, the annual output can reach 100,000 tons, which can support the breeding of more than 200,000 Tan sheep. A mutton distribution point has been built locally, and a split sales and order model has been implemented, covering more than 500 farmers. Chen Xiaoting, a farmer in Majzhuang Village, said that after orders stabilize, the scale of breeding can be expanded in an orderly manner.
In addition, the transfer of forest and grassland can bring more than 20 million yuan in income to the village collective every year, which is distributed to farmers; the local area develops courtyard apricot tree planting, relies on the resources of Haba Lake and the ancient Great Wall to develop cultural tourism, and broadens farmers' income channels.
Sand control in the salt pond is based on sand fixation using wheat straw grids, and continues to promote vegetation restoration while developing resources in the sand area, combining ecological management with increasing people's income, and achieving sustained ecological stability in the sand area.
