Dense woods cover the mountains, flocks of birds flying in the Soil and Water Conservation Technology Demonstration Park... Spring returns to the land, Ninghua County is full of green mountains and vitality.
In the past, Ninghua County suffered from soil erosion and was one of the most serious soil erosion counties in our province. According to the 1995 provincial satellite remote sensing census, the area of soil erosion in Ninghua County is 455 square kilometers, accounting for 19.15% of the total area of the county. In the barren mountains of Bald Ridge, as soon as it rains, the rain will be wrapped in purple soil and roll into the river. The local people have a saying that this mountain has no hair, two skins, three no flesh, only bare bones (mother rock).
The area of purple soil erosion is large and concentrated, the intensity of erosion is large, and the task of treatment is arduous. Over the years, the vast number of cadres and masses in Ninghua County have carried forward the spirit of "dripping water through stones, one person and ten people", learned from the "Changting experience", and focused on the goal of fighting a tough battle against soil erosion and vowing to turn barren slopes into oases, innovating mechanisms, precise governance, and focusing on creating a high-standard soil and water conservation demonstration model.
Over the past 20 years, the county has completed a total investment of 650 million yuan, of which 410 million yuan is subsidized by the superior, 240 million yuan is supported by local support, and the cumulative comprehensive treatment of soil erosion area is 1.3087 million mu, and it has won the fourth batch of national ecological civilization construction demonstration cities and counties and the first batch of national soil and water conservation demonstration counties, which is the county with the largest reduction in the loss area of the five cities and fourteen counties in Guangdong, Fujian and Gansu.
Behind these "national brand" signboards, the hard work and efforts of Ninghua cadres are condensed.
Ninghua was once one of the key counties for poverty alleviation and development at the provincial level. In the case of weak financial resources, how to solve the problem of governance? Over the years, Ninghua County has taken innovative measures to explore and establish a 48-character governance mechanism of "government leadership, mass main body, company operation, large household contracting, land circulation, peasant household shareholding, unit contracting, social participation, comprehensive ban, classified governance, long-term management and protection, and benefiting people's livelihood".
In addition to the government's investment in "real money and silver", Ninghua County mobilized the enthusiasm of private capital to participate in soil erosion control, and guided private capital of 190 million yuan to participate in the project construction for many years.
Shibi Town Xibei Village Oil Tea Planting Demonstration Base
Du Qiusheng, head of Ninghua Houde Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd., has a deep understanding of participating in the comprehensive treatment of soil erosion. In 2014, he contracted more than 10,000 acres of barren mountains to develop and grow oil tea. In recent years, the county soil and water conservation center has helped Houde Company to set up a pilot project of "awards in lieu of compensation" for the construction of the national soil and water conservation project, and obtained more than 5 million yuan of financial subsidies and technical guidance, helping to transform nearly 4,000 mu of slope cultivated land, nearly 16 kilometers of machine ploughing roads, and building interception ditches and reservoirs according to local conditions. Through governance, the barren mountain has become a lush camellia oleifera forest, and the company produced more than 40 kilograms of tea oil per mu last year, with an annual output value of 24 million yuan.
The key to soil erosion control lies in the construction of a scientific and effective prevention and control system. Ninghua County has improved the governance plan, innovated the governance measures, explored five models such as "fish scale pit + mountain edge ditch" and "bamboo ditch + water conservation forest", and scientifically allocated water and soil conservation forest and grass measures, engineering measures and agricultural technical measures on each plot to form an effective comprehensive prevention and control system for soil erosion.
Zhang Yunfu, director of the Ninghua County Water Conservation Center, said that in addition to engineering measures to control soil erosion, it is also important to control the "firewood knife". The county implemented a fuel subsidy system, actively guided the masses to replace firewood and grass with fuels such as electricity, coal, biogas, and liquefied gas, and issued a total of 39.425 million yuan of non-diesel fuel subsidy policy funds, and implemented a comprehensive ban on soil erosion areas in the county.
According to statistics, the area of soil erosion in Ninghua County decreased from 455.34 square kilometers in 1995 to 221.63 square kilometers in 2020, a decrease of 233.71 square kilometers. After successful treatment of the plots, the vegetation coverage has been greatly improved; the ability of mountain culverts to store water sources and intercept precipitation has been significantly enhanced, the climate has been regulated and improved, and the ecological environment has gradually developed benignly.
The mountains and rivers are clear, the ecological environment is better, the industry is more prosperous, and the peasants' pockets are even more drummed.
In the soil erosion control area, Ninghua County combines the promotion of special industries such as oil tea, tea, fruit industry, edible mushrooms, and forestry industry with the project of controlling soil erosion, which not only controls soil erosion, but also promotes industrial development. At present, Ninghua County grows 200,000 mu of oil tea, bringing direct benefits to forest farmers of 80 million yuan per year. The per capita annual income of farmers increased from 1919 yuan in 1995 to 16783 yuan in 2020, an increase of 8.7 times.
Soil and water conservation, the merit is in the contemporary era, and the benefit is in the thousand autumns. Only by guarding the green water and green mountains can we exchange them for the golden mountains and silver mountains. After more than 20 years of hard work and efforts of Ninghua Ganqun, a beautiful picture of "beautiful mountains and clear waters, ecological livability" is slowly unfolding in Ninghua.
Reporter Liu Bowen Liu Caiheng