Once-barren desert in Hanggin Banner turns into fertile land

The vast deserts of Hanggin Banner in Ordos city, in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, have been transformed into fertile lands by modern technology.

Hanggin Banner is encompassed by Kubuqi, China's seventh-largest desert.

In 2022, Professor Yi Zhijian and his research team from Chongqing Jiaotong University were invited to Hanggin Banner to provide talent and technical support for the "desert soil transformation" project.

By relying on mechanical operations, the team successfully constrained the sand and transformed the desert into arable soil.

The desert is now better equipped to retain water and nutrients than local farmland, resulting in lower irrigation costs.

After the transformation by the research team, an experimental field on transformed sand covering 2,300 mu (153.33 hectares）was successfully planted with more than 20 crops, all of which have shown promising growth.

"This year, we have transformed a desert area of over 13,000 mu, and we have planted a wide range of crops, including corn, sunflowers, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, as well as high-quality forage crops such as alfalfa and oats," said Diao Lihua, the official in charge of the project.

"We recently sold the harvested alfalfa and oats, and their yields are comparable to those grown on ordinary farmland. This proves that our desert soil transformation technology is feasible and worthy of promotion," Diao added.

He said the technology is allowing crops to grow in the previously barren desert. This not only demonstrates the effectiveness of good ecological governance, but also confirms the potential economic value of the desert.

Moving forward, the team will further expand the coverage of its "desert soil transformation" project, transforming more areas into arable land to make effective use of this advantageous resource.