China is turning the Desert Into Productive Land.

is it possible to turn this yellow Sandlin into a fertile soil crops like corn tomatoes sorghum and sunflowers transforming more than 200 hectares of sand dunes into an oasis all within six months [Music] [Music] little if any rain and scorching temperatures not exactly ideal conditions to support vegetation but turning that logic on its head is this desert in north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region from Chandra and you said Tony ladies huh according to our calculation there are over 70 kinds of crops growing here many are not planted by us but they just grow themselves crops like corn tomatoes sorghum and sunflowers transforming more than 200 hectares of sand dunes into an oasis all within six months it's all thanks to new technology developed by researchers at chong ching chong university they developed a paste made of a substance found naturally in plant cell walls when it's added to sand it's able to retain water nutrients and air somnathpura holiday wine heaven the costs of artificial materials and machines for transforming sand into soil is lower compared with controlled environmental agriculture and reclamation the research team has big future plans this fall it hopes to transform an additional 200 hectares of desert and possibly more than 13,000 in the next few years the method could be promising for China in three years the country hopes to reforest 50% of degraded desert land that can be treated by 2030 the United Nations is aiming to reach zero growth of desert farmland around the world so China's breakthrough experiment in converting sand as soil is promising for making land seemingly hostile to life fertile ground [Music] [Music] [Music] jari leaves near the dead that he has a new job working in a solar power station 4000 years there's nothing here but sand in the middle of the kaput she'd edit and now this is one of the largest solar power stations in northwestern China and it only took two years to build this Oasis here the solar power station generates 500 million kilowatt hours every year it also generates income for local people junkies Aegina we've hired local people for construction and maintenance work they also become shareholders by leasing lent to us I used to earn two to three thousand a year now I get paid for a thousand a year it's a big difference this is an example of the desert economy in kubu tea is part of the efforts of a private company called a line to rollback desertification the core of it is to balance the relationship between government enterprises farmers and ecological environment raising the income of local people is vital to the success and the environment is also benefiting the says storms are much fewer and the movement of the sand dunes has also slowed various ways are being developed improve the efficiency and reduce cost like reserving 40 days of water for tree and planting liquorice that sells for around 10 yuan per kilogram in the market ecological management in the desert must be economical and respect nature and market rules the desert economy model in cappucci has turned six thousand square kilometres of desert green created five hundred billion yuan in value and helped a hundred thousand farmers out of poverty we believe this is a model that can be replicated that can have multiplier effect and it can be replicated everywhere in the world where we have the right kind of building blocks what I hear desertification affects over a fifth of China's territory and a set of its people after years of efforts in legislation policy finance mechanism and a technology innovation China has become one of the few countries in the world that has reduced the areas under threat is it possible to turn this yellow sand land into a fertile soil we plant a family of flowering plants having poses fruits and root modules that can extract nitrogen from the air so the same land can gradually become fertile soil don't has been working for cappucci Desert Technology institution since she graduated from Beijing forestry university the research centre is founded by alien resources a private enterprise specializing in sustainable land management they discovered growing licorice used in Chinese herb medicine in difficult terrain is not only good for business but also for the environment called higher comers licorice grows rhizome beer soda has nitrogen fixation after the land has been planted with licorice you can quickly change to soil and this then fertile for agriculture apart from growing the rice species uninterrupted sunlight provides much potential for capturing large quantities of solar energy exploiting this resource would help China meet both energy requirements and its commitment to saving the environment we make a flat-out effort to develop the industry of Forestry in the desert desert industry serves both commercial and environmental needs as a result of improvements in the environment natural lakes pepper ground encourage locals to return and new migrants to arrive today hundreds of different breeds of birds have settled here local herdsmen call them beautiful angels and try hard to protect them so their numbers are likely to rise in coming years not only the numbers of birds will continue to increase but also the region's attractions fling pastures - boosting his efforts and preventing the spread of desert lands working with private companies the working cappucci desert has become a flagship product of these efforts during the past five years China has restored over 10 million hectares of land affected by desertification the desert area used to increase by 10,000 square kilometres every year now it shrinks by 2,400 square kilometres annually since 2016 China has used the public-private partnerships in the fight against the desertification with companies investing tourism and agricultural products and farmers getting subsidies decades ago this was a desolate desert now it's a Gordon it tourism attraction in the middle of the day that not only it turns the land green but it also generate income for local people so that such products could be sustainable and expanded to more areas chan is also working with the United Nations and efforts to control desertification has extended across the nation spotter tinkin United Nations we believe this is a model that can be replicated that can have multiplier effect and it can be replicated everywhere in the world where we have the right kind of building blocks what I hear yet it is too early to declare victory chan has one of the world's largest the desert areas one force of the nation's territory is affected by desertification 95% of that is along the Belton Road economic zoom that the country strives to revive it requires great efforts to turn death into Greenland yet it will require more to keep it this way Mexico Tijuana Taniguchi de rigueur terrible challenge Avenue cumbia 15 minutes of Sheba shiny GP tan jianci deliver Gentry from Karnataka concluded a summer South Asia in a little bit of a hole chinga Patrick's life noggin gopis agua para condi know tthe same position de e4 Judge Judy - with a way like Tom Jamie children suffer even homosexuality of people actually do collectively to achieve this is a you are doing a final solution of them chairman Tom Werner typo3 interaction holy order to receive answers in tandem chairmanship our solution see if I'm actually down to woman woman choose a triad at Russia Japan well to ensure we identify them that job ginger gentle it's all that you knew each other [Music]

Channel: Rob & Andy Cruz

Views: 34,001

Keywords: China, greening the desert, permaculture, soil, sand, geoff lawton, green gold, john d. liu, farming, food forest, permaninja, good news

Id: Vq5l8b4JGvk

Length: 10min 44sec (644 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 07 2018