Potatoes chip in to restrict desert growth

The humble vegetable is helping to turn sandy areas green, create jobs and boost living standards. Yang Wanli reports from Beijing, with Yuan Hui in Hohhot.

As they enjoy a bag of potato chips or a box of fries at a fast-food outlet, few people are likely to know where the raw materials for the popular snacks originate when they are produced in China.

When they learn that the answer is "the desert", many are surprised.

North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region has the largest amount of desertified and sandy land in the country, so it faces a severe threat of desertification. Now, though, potatoes are helping to turn the sand into an oasis of greenery.

The region's battle with sand is a reflection of the central government's determination to protect the environment, and also the catalyst for innovative measures to restore the fragile desert environment.

Over many years, the country has taken a number of steps to bring its deserts under control. In 1978, an anti-desertification drive began in North China to plant a massive wall of trees－known to many people as the "green Great Wall"－along the border with the Gobi Desert to significantly contain its expansion.

The project, which is expected to be completed in 2050 and extend about 4,500 kilometers, will help expand the country's northern forestry coverage from 5 percent in the 1960s to 15 percent.

On March 30, President Xi Jinping joined Beijing residents for a voluntary tree-planting activity in the capital's Daxing district. He urged comprehensive efforts to promote environmental conservation and make a greater contribution to advancing global environmental and climate governance and enhancing harmony between man and nature.

This year marks the 41st anniversary of the country's voluntary tree-planting program.

Retarding expansion

Inner Mongolia is a key part of this greening plan. From 2016 to 2020, work in the region prevented and controlled the desertification of an average 800,000 hectares per year, effectively curbing the spread of local deserts, according to the regional forestry department.

"About five years ago when I came here, there were no plants, only the Mu Us Desert stretching as far as the eye could see," said Chen Xiliang, potato production team leader for Lay's, a potato snacks company based in the United States that buys produce from his cooperative potato farm in Ordos, Inner Mongolia.

As the site of two of China's biggest deserts－the Mu Us and the Kubuqi－Ordos introduced potatoes as a major measure to restore the sandy land. Chen was among the pioneers when the project began in 2018.

"The Mu Us has unique advantages: It has no industrial pollution, and we also found rich underground water there. Both are promising factors for the success of large-scale potato planting," he said.

To ensure that the crops are protected effectively, Chen spends six to seven months in the field every year, only visiting his family in downtown Ordos during the other months. On his daily patrols around the fields he walks an average of 20,000 steps.

"Potatoes can't talk, so we need to take care of them carefully. That was especially true during the first few years when we experimented with planting techniques," he said, stressing the need for constant surveillance of the plants.

"The field was supported by an irrigation pipeline system, but any small technical mistakes resulted in months of effort going to waste."

With the help of a number of agricultural experts, Chen and his team conducted dozens of experiments and changed planting techniques many times. Eventually, they were able to expand operations from one small experimental potato field and introduce several large-scale cultivation units.

In 2019, Chen's farm was expanded to 2,000 hectares, resulting in a crop big enough to ensure production of potato products worth 60 million yuan ($9.4 million) a year.

Favorable conditions

Xu Youdong, head of the Ordos agriculture and animal husbandry bureau, said: "If you look at an aerial photo of Ordos, you will see some huge green circles in the desert. Some people joke that they are 'mysterious' circles left by extraterrestrials, but, in fact, they are our potato fields."

He said the history of potato planting in Ordos can be traced back to 1952. The city's climate and conditions are both conducive to the crop, which has strong tolerance of drought and barren soil.

By 2020, Ordos was home to potato fields covering a total of 13,266 hectares, which produced 300,000 metric tons of the crop a year, according to the city's statistics bureau.

"Potatoes not only bring wealth to local people, but also an oasis. When my kids grow up, they will proudly see the green miracle sparked by their father's efforts," Chen said.

"Some people say nature is cruel and inhumane. They don't understand the truth about nature, which is that it always repays people who really treasure it."

The government of Inner Mongolia has developed many innovative greening solutions to control the sand and set the world an example of how to combat desertification.

A greening campaign in the Kubuqi Desert has been promoted in the past three decades, led by Elion Resources Group, a local company. It includes measures such as the restoration of vegetation, eco-friendly tourism and a solar power industry.

The campaign－promoting balanced development of the environment, the economy and people's livelihoods－has generated income of 500 billion yuan for local people, the regional forestry department said.

About 700,000 hectares of sandy land in the Kubuqi have turned green. The number of wild species has risen from 123 to 530, and water conservation has grown from almost zero to about 25 billion cubic meters, the department said.

Since 2017, Inner Mongolia has treated nearly 4.8 million hectares of desertified land, accounting for more than 40 percent of the area treated nationally during the period.

Meanwhile, grazing has been banned on an area of nearly 27 million hectares, while 18 protected areas of desertified and sandy land have been established, covering more than 183,000 hectares, it added.

Last year, the region's afforestation efforts saw Inner Mongolia's forestry coverage rate and the grassland's vegetation coverage reach 23 percent and 45 percent, respectively, the department said.

Fact Box

・ With more than 2.6 million square kilometers of sandy and desertified land, China is one of the countries most subject to severe desertification.

・ According to the 2015 national survey on desertification, nearly one-third of the country's total territorial land is desertified, while about 17 percent of the land area is sandy.

・ Desertification is the process by which fertile land degrades into arid, semiarid and subhumid areas. The main cause of desertification is the overexploitation and inappropriate use of land through deforestation, overgrazing and substandard irrigation practices.

・ In 1996, China joined The United Nation's Convention to Combat Desertification. As a result of decades of work, the area of desertified land in the country has shrunk by nearly 2,000 sq km every year since.

・ President Xi Jinping has constantly stressed the adoption of "a holistic approach" to the conservation of mountains, rivers, forests, farmland, lakes and grassland.

・ Last year, deserts were brought into China's development picture by being included in the annual Government Work Report for the first time as a crucial part of the country's plans for environmental protection.

・ During last year's two sessions-the meetings of the top legislative and political advisory bodies-Xi stressed that top-level design and comprehensive measures would be needed to manage the country's mountains, rivers, forests, farmland, lakes, grassland and deserts.

・ So far, the government has introduced 53 model projects to fight desertification and also established 120 national stony desert parks.

・ Afforestation plays a crucial role in the anti-desertification battle. Last year alone, 3.6 million hectares of forests were planted, more than double the area of Beijing, according to a National Land Greening Communique released recently by the National Afforestation Committee.

・ Greening projects have helped prevent the expansion of more than 1.4 million hectares of sandy and desert land and restored more than 3 million hectares of grassland, the communique said.

NATIONAL FORESTRY AND GRASSLAND ADMINISTRATION