Text | China Science News trainee reporter Ye Manshan
Xu Xianying is observing the pests and diseases of the sand-fixing plant H. amon. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
In a land in Gansu Province that is frequently invaded by a sea of yellow sand, there is a sand control man named Xu Xianying. With a sincere heart, like a lone eagle in the sea of sand, he used the wings of science and technology to block the invasion of wind and sand, and he worked for 38 years.
Not long ago, Xu Xianying, a researcher from the Gansu Provincial Desertification Control Research Institute, was awarded the title of "National Outstanding Engineer".
初入沙海,矢志不渝
"The autumn wind blows the fields, and the spring breeze blows the dead cows. ”
Xu Xianying was born in July 1963 in a small village on the edge of the desert in Minqin County, Gansu Province.
In his memory, whenever the wind rose, the yellow sand covered the sky and the sun, the home became unrecognizable, and the sand and dust roared and ran like a wild beast, as if to devour all life. And the sand belt in front of his house, which is called "Big Red Willow Ridge" by the locals, has become an insurmountable moat in his youthful memories.
Minqin County in Gansu Province is one of the most desertified areas in China and one of the four major sources of sandstorms in northern China. This little-known county seat, which is "sandwiched" by the Tengger Desert and the Badain Jaran Desert, is a key area for national desertification control.
When he was young, Xu Xianying followed his father to insert wind walls in the desert and protect Chai Bay. Since then, getting out of here and away from the wind and sand has become his greatest wish.
However, Xu Xianying's fate with the desert is difficult to solve. Coincidentally, during the college entrance examination admission, he was only admitted to the sand control major, and the desert he wanted to escape from when he was young once again pulled him back.
After graduating from university, Xu Xianying returned to his hometown. He understands that desertification control is not only as simple as planting trees and fixing sand, but also a systematic project that requires technology, innovation and perseverance.
In the early days of sand control in Gansu, the sand pressing mode of "people pulling shoulders and carrying them" was generally adopted, and it was difficult to press sand and open ditches in sand areas, which was not only labor-intensive, but also difficult to ensure efficiency. The broken terrain of the desert and the soft dry sand once became a problem for mechanical sand control and sand compaction.
"We must find a way to build a more compact and convenient machine that the people in the sand area can afford. He silently set the goal, led the team to independently develop sand control equipment, and produced the first batch of rapid seedling planting devices for shrubs in quicksand land and small walk-behind sand barrier machines.
The improved rapid seedling planting device for quicksand shrubs effectively solved the problem of difficulty in digging pits for seedling roots and dry sand layer during the planting of quicksand shrubs, and significantly improved the planting rate and seedling survival rate of psammophyte shrubs.
The convenient and powerful walk-behind sand barrier machine can adapt to the changeable desert terrain, and the work efficiency is 6 times that of manual labor. Each mu of land can save more than 250 yuan in the cost of sand compaction, which significantly reduces the labor intensity of the masses. Therefore, in the Hexi region of Gansu Province, as well as in Inner Mongolia, Qinghai and other desert treatment engineering areas, this machine has quickly been widely used.
"This 250 yuan may not seem like much, but it means that under the same conditions, we can cover one-fifth more of the sand for sand compaction. He said.
He and his team have successfully developed a miniature grass laying and sand press machine with independent intellectual property rights, which has been updated to the fifth generation. Gansu is in a leading position in the field of sand control equipment in China, and the sand compaction equipment designed and manufactured by Xu Xianying's team has been widely used in major sand areas in the mainland.
Deep into the desert, homeland feelings
Forty years ago, Huanghuatan Village in Huanghuatan Township, Gulang County, Wuwei City, Gansu Province, was still the Gobi Desert on the southwestern edge of the Tengger Desert. Before the relocation of poverty alleviation, the residents here lived in Jiashanling Village, an arid mountainous area in the southern part of the Qilian Mountains.
At that time, the mountain was like a monk's head, with ditches and no water flow. Dripping water is as expensive as oil, and there is no harvest in spring and autumn", the villagers can only grow some potatoes and peas, and raise a few sheep to maintain their basic life. The days were sad, the villagers moved and left, and only the poorest of the 100 families remained, living a tight life. Due to the severity of the sand disaster, the villagers who had finally moved out of the Jiashan Mountains were "driven" back to the Qilian Mountains by the southbound desert. "The north wind and sand ride the wall overnight, and the donkey gets up in the morning to go to the house", which is the truest portrayal of the sand hazard here.
In the face of such severe environmental and social problems, in 2001, Xu Xianying, as the core leader, placed the project of "Treatment, Monitoring and Sand Industry Development of Key Areas of Windblown Sand Hazard at the Edge of Hexi Oasis in Gansu Province" in this village.
"We live and eat with the farmers, and we hike more than 10 kilometers of sandy areas every day. No matter how fierce the wind and sand were, we stuck to the front line, setting up sand barriers and planting trees. Under the scorching sun, everyone's face became like black charcoal. At the end of each day, despite the sand and exhaustion, we still have to convene a meeting of the farmers and mobilize them to participate in the anti-desertification operation. ”
Xu Xianying goes out early and returns late every day, eats lunch in the wild, sometimes encounters a sandstorm, and the dry food he brings is "drilled" into the sand, and when he comes back late in the afternoon, he uses cold steamed buns to satisfy his hunger, and often has to fight at night to arrange the next day's work and analyze data.
"With sand on his head and sand on his body, the whole person has no conditions for washing, so he can only sleep with dust and lice. Xu Xianying recalled.
After four years of unremitting efforts, the team finally established a "four-belt-in-one" windbreak and sand fixation management model at the edge of the oasis in Huanghuatan Village. This model includes the frontal windbreak and sand-blocking belt, the sand-fixing forest belt, the plant living sand barrier sand-blocking belt, and the sand sealing and afforestation and grass belt. At the same time, the team also experimented and demonstrated the management of 3,000 acres of sandy land, and successfully proposed a technical scheme for the rapid recovery of sand fixing agents and psammophytes in the rainy season.
When the project was successfully completed and the team left Huanghuatan to return to the institute, the local villagers expressed their gratitude by setting off firecrackers and presenting pennants.
Uncle Zhang, who is in his 70s, said with emotion: "I admire you very much for your spirit of not being afraid of hardships and sincerely doing practical things for the people." When I die, I will be buried in the forest belt you have built, and I will continue to protect this oasis. ”
Guarding the China Water Tower
Located on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Maqu County in Gansu Province is an important water supply area in the upper reaches of the Yellow River and one of the main animal husbandry bases in Gansu Province. However, due to the influence of natural and man-made factors such as overgrazing and climate change, the alpine grassland in this region has been degraded to varying degrees, and the grassland coverage has decreased and soil erosion has intensified, resulting in serious desertification problems.
Xu Xianying led the technical team to conduct a detailed investigation of the Maqu grassland for more than 40 days. The strong ultraviolet rays on the plateau are ruthlessly scorched, making it normal for team members to have extensive skin sunburn and peeling. They also get caught up in swamps of wetlands all over the place, and every step is challenging. "In any case, we can't let the greenery on the grasslands diminish. Xu Xianying said.
After comprehensive scientific research, they successfully developed the alpine grassland desertification control technology, which effectively solved the key problems of alpine grassland desertification control in the Shouqu area of the Yellow River, and provided solid data support for the subsequent ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.
In the following years, the treatment technology developed by Xu Xianying's team was widely used in the Maqu grassland. This technology has not only increased the vegetation coverage of local grasslands by more than 30%, but also increased grassland productivity by nearly 30%, injecting new vitality into local ecological restoration and economic development.
During her career, Xu Xianying has presided over and completed more than 30 projects, won the Gansu Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award for many times, authorized 22 patents, published a number of papers, screened 4 stress-resistant sandy afforestation tree species, developed 17 windbreak and sand fixation technologies and models, developed more than 90 sets of new sand control equipment, and promoted sand control technology to more than 200,000 acres of land.
Today, Xu Xianying still maintains his love and dedication to the cause of desertification, he is well aware of the damage of desertification to his homeland and the threat to the ecological environment, and he understands that the cause of desertification control is a long-term and arduous task, which requires the joint efforts of generation after generation.
China Science Daily (2024-02-05 3rd Edition)