China’s idyllic Xinjiang grasslands hid a salty soiled secret that’s been solved
Years of research have yielded productive plains that offer China more food security in the face of geopolitical upheaval and extreme weather
Nationwide efforts to convert salty soil into arable grasslands have extended to a high-elevation part of China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region where a quartet of mountains converge and the arid climate has long quelled attempts to cultivate crops.
After eight years of intensive work in the region’s Pamir Plateau, about 1,300 hectares (3,200 acres) of salt-affected desert in Tashkurgan Tajik county have been transformed into productive plains, the official People’s Daily reported over the weekend.
The announcement came as Beijing has been sowing the seeds of agricultural security to ensure that 1.4 billion Chinese people continue to have adequate food supplies while geopolitics affect trade supplies and an influx of extreme weather events wreak havoc on farmlands.
With a vegetation coverage rate exceeding 85 per cent, and a hay yield of more than 4,500kg (9,920 pounds) per hectare, the achievement is reportedly the first large-scale success in cultivating high-quality forage across the dry and salty lands of the plateau.
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The breakthrough will relieve demand pressure on high-altitude livestock feed and allow for the natural grasslands to recuperate, Professor Xi Linqiao, deputy chief scientist of Xinjiang’s high-quality-forage production initiative and a professor with the region’s Tarim University, was quoted as saying.
Tashkurgan, with 418,000 hectares of natural grassland, supports 250,000 livestock, including the Tashkurgan sheep and Pamir yak, both designated as national genetic resources.
But with poor natural pasture growth due to climate conditions forcing the county to import hay from other areas, the county launched its saline-soil reclamation project in 2017 and built a research team in partnership with several local institutions. People’s Daily said the team managed to lower the pH level, a measure of acidity, from 9.5 to approximately 8 using acid-base balancing agents and halophilic bacteria – extremophilic organisms that thrive in high salt conditions.
The initiative also included irrigation infrastructure, eco-restoration, and innovative “dry seeding, wet germination” techniques to maximise irrigation effectiveness, addressing the region’s uneven terrain.