"Pinch the black soil to make oil flowers, and insert a pair of chopsticks to sprout", this is the North Okura in the eyes of people. The older generation of Northeast people probably remember it vividly, how difficult it is to turn the Great Northern Wilderness into the Great Northern Warehouse.
However, what is unexpected is that the current Beidacang is going to return farmland to "famine". The fertile land that a generation has worked hard for most of its life, just don't want it?
All this has to start with the reclamation of the Great Northern Wilderness.
What is the Great Northern Wilderness?
The Great Northern Wilderness mainly refers to the northern part of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China, including the Songhua River, Heilongjiang River, Ussuri River basins, and the vast land around the Xiaoxing'an Mountains. Before the 50s of the 20th century, the land was an inaccessible wilderness, maintaining a pristine ecological appearance.
The geographical location of the Great Northern Wilderness has endowed it with unique climatic characteristics, where the temperature is low all year round, and countless leaves and naturally fallen trees accumulate on the ground, and over time, they decay and deteriorate, forming a thick, fertile layer of black soil.
With an area of about 6 million hectares, it accounts for one-fifth of the world's total black soil area and 80% of China's total black soil.
The organic matter content of black soil is as high as 2.5%-7.5%, which is ten times that of ordinary land, and even without fertilization, this black soil can bring far more crops than other lands.
How difficult is it to reclaim the Great Northern Wilderness?
It is precisely because of the unique land conditions of the Great Northern Wilderness that in the 50s of the 20th century, in order to solve the problem of food and clothing for more than 400 million people at that time, the Chinese government resolutely made a major decision to develop this land, and a huge reclamation movement was launched.
Tens of thousands of intellectuals and peasants responded to the call of the state and set foot on the land of the Great Northern Wilderness. They were faced with extreme climate, barren soil, and difficult living conditions, but all these did not stop them from moving forward, and with firm conviction and indomitable spirit, they began a vigorous movement to open up the land and grow grain.
After decades of hard work, the Great Northern Wilderness has been transformed into an important national commercial grain base, with an annual grain output of up to 7 billion kilograms. With one-tenth of the country's arable land, it produces one-fourth of the country's food and nourishes one-sixth of the population.
After reclamation, Beidacang not only became a major center of grain production in China, but also achieved a significant leap in the output of soybeans, corn and rice. According to detailed statistics, in the decades since reclamation, the grain output of the Great Northern Wilderness has increased dozens of times.
However, since 1999, the state has decided to return the vast Beida Warehouse to "wasteland", completely stop the development of existing wetlands, and at the same time return all 2 million hectares of cultivated land that is not suitable for cultivation or has low yield.
Why did Beida Okura return farmland?
Why would you rather not have grain, but also return to the northern warehouse?
In fact, in recent years, in the over-reclamation of the Great Northern Wilderness, people have gradually become aware of some serious ecological problems.
However, a large number of human activities have been carried out on this land, which has reduced the area of natural ecosystems such as virgin forests and wetlands, and broken the originally stable ecological environment. The originally flat and fertile black soil has also become ravines due to uncontrolled over-cultivation, and the problem of soil erosion has become more and more serious.
The most immediate problem caused by soil erosion is the disappearance of black soil. According to the statistics of relevant departments, the surface layer of the black soil in the Great Northern Wilderness is losing rapidly at a rate of nearly 1 cm per year. What was once nearly 1 meter of black soil is now less than 40 centimeters thick.
Even in some areas, the originally dark soil has even begun to take on the characteristics of loess, and in a few places there has been desertification, and individual villages have been swallowed up by wind and sand. If we don't take vigilance, prevent and protect it, and let the black soil continue to drain at this rate, then in a few decades, we may completely lose this precious layer of black soil.
What's even more distressing is that the precious black soil, which only precipitated one centimeter in 400 years, is now easily sold at a price of just four yuan, which is undoubtedly a great waste of black soil resources in the Great Northern Wilderness. The problem of the loss of black soil is already worrying, and the phenomenon of illegal excavation of black soil has been rampant in the past few years.
The lure of up to 300% profits has led some people to take this extreme and destructive way to gain at the expense of long-term interests. It not only undermines the sustainable use of land, but also threatens the health and stability of the entire ecosystem.
Without black soil, grain production has dropped dramatically. At the end of the 20th century, compared with the early stage of reclamation, the grain output has decreased by nearly half. In addition, due to the intensification of soil erosion, many rivers in the Great Northern Wilderness have a large amount of sediment accumulation, and the functions of many water conservancy projects have been damaged or even failed.
At the same time, the sharp decline in the wetland area and biodiversity of the Great Northern Wilderness have weakened the conservation and regulation functions of the ecosystem, making the entire Great Northern Wilderness evolve into an ecologically fragile area. Severe weather and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, taking a heavy toll on the local economy.
Since the 90s of the last century, the Great Northern Wilderness area has been hit by drought and flood disasters many times. The floods of 1994 engulfed more than 5,300 hectares of farmland in Heilongjiang and devastated dozens of villages.
In 1998, there was an unprecedented flood. By 2002, there were no floods and a severe drought that made planting almost impossible in the entire Songnen Plain.
The results of returning farmland to "famine".
In order to protect the ecological environment and promote the grand blueprint of sustainable development, the Chinese government resolutely launched the policy of returning farmland to forests and grasslands at the beginning of the 21st century. The implementation of this series of policies marks a profound reflection and transformation of the traditional agricultural development model.
The so-called return of farmland is not simply a reduction in the area of cultivated land, but also a comprehensive innovation in the mode of agricultural development. Through returning farmland to farmland, the Great Northern Wilderness area has not only gradually restored the natural ecology and improved the quality of the land, but also actively explored more scientific and environmentally friendly agricultural production methods.
In the past 20 years, remarkable results have been achieved in the work of returning farmland to "waste" in the Great Northern Wilderness area, hundreds of thousands of hectares of land have been returned to farmland, a protected area of about 20% of the entire agricultural reclamation area has been established, and hundreds of thousands of hectares of artificial afforestation have been completed.
Today's "Beidacang" not only reproduces the beautiful scenery of the Great Northern Wilderness with abundant water and grass, herds of animals and beautiful scenery, but also consolidates its important position as "China's granary" with an annual output of 10 billion kilograms of grain.
From the past to today's wilderness, the Great Northern Wilderness vividly interprets the development concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", and realizes the goal of harmonious development between man and nature.
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