Biography
Li Baoguo
Dean, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University. Born in 1964 in Linfen, Shanxi, he was admitted to the Department of Soil Agrochemistry of Beijing Agricultural University in 1980, and graduated with a doctorate in 1990 to engage in soil treatment.
Since 2008, Li Baoguo and his team members have devoted themselves to the governance of black land in Northeast China, creating the "pear tree model" of black land governance, which is a model of conservation tillage, through full straw mulching, less ploughing or even no ploughing, while using the soil, so that the soil can rest as much as possible and protect the sustainability of the soil.
Nowadays, more and more places are learning and implementing conservation tillage to protect soils and protect food security.
Li Baoguo likes to work in the field and prefers to deal with the land under his feet.
Inheritance
The starry sky overhead and the earth under your feet are the things that are most worthy of awe and admiration. Our profession is precisely to study the soil under our feet.
I want myself, my students, and all the researchers in this field to remain curious about the land. This is also what I insist on in teaching, so that my students do not only think about topics, projects, and achievements, but everywhere they go, they think about how the land standing under their feet has been formed in the evolution of thousands of years. How has human activity changed it? These reflections will lead us to explore the deeper mysteries of nature and gain a broad world in the field of expertise.
Li Baoguo said: Cultivated land is the basic resource for human survival, as well as the basic resource for future national rejuvenation and rural revitalization.
In July 2021, the 7th Black Land Forum is being held at the Pear Tree Experimental Station of China Agricultural University in Lishu County, Jilin Province, and as one of the initiators of the Black Land Forum, Li Baoguo spends many of his years working and working here.
Outside the Pear Tree Experimental Station, a huge slogan that reads, "Chinese will hold the rice bowl in your own hands," stands in the middle of the farmland, and the corn that is more than one person tall under his feet is connected into a large piece, and Li Baoguo's experimental field is here. Here, Li Baoguo and his colleagues and students spent more than a decade exploring the "pear tree model" that formed conservation tillage on black soil.
When I was in college, I began to think about the earth under my feet
In 1980, the third year of resuming the college entrance examination, Li Baoguo was admitted to the Department of Soil Chemistry of Beijing Agricultural University, left the small mountain village where he had lived for 16 years, and came to Beijing by train from Linfen, Shanxi, to start his university life.
"Before going to college, I basically never left the Loess Plateau of my hometown. At that time, I didn't think about how different the soil under my feet was. Li Baoguo said.
After entering the university, studying and majoring in soil, Li Baoguo had new ideas and questions about the yellow land: How was the Loess Plateau formed? How were the tens of millions of ravines on the plateau washed away? The same is the cave, some are not broken, some collapse quickly, why?
Li Baoguo said that at that time, he found that he preferred field work and preferred to deal with the land under his feet. After graduating from university, he applied for a graduate school in soil science, and together with his supervisor, engaged in the study and research of the improvement of saline and alkali land in the Huang-Huai-Hai Sea.
The Huang-Huai-Hai Plain is the North China Plain, where droughts and floods were severe, and from the 1960s to the 1980s, countless agricultural scholars studied here to explore the improvement methods of low- and medium-yield fields in the Huang-Huai-Hai. At that time, the governance of Huanghuaihai had already achieved initial results, and it was the best time to learn. After graduating, Dr. Li Baoguo stayed there to engage in saline-alkali land monitoring, monitoring the impact of changes in land use patterns and environment on farmland through advanced technologies such as satellite remote sensing and computers, and monitoring soil changes and improvement processes.
From nature to the laboratory, back to nature
Li Baoguo's laboratory is filled with a variety of soils, which come from the north and south of the world, from the saline and alkalin land of the northwest to the black soil of the northeast. This is just one of the places where Li Baoguo works, more often than not, in the wild, in the farmland. "Our work, which originates from nature, is ultimately applied to nature." Li Baoguo said.
Compared with the laboratory, Li Baoguo prefers field work and observes nature. In Li Baoguo's photo album, there are many photos of him lying on the field land to observe, take pictures, and take samples, which is almost a necessary procedure for every business trip.
Li Baoguo can tell the characteristics of the soil from Beijing to anywhere in Xinjiang, which is related to his years of work in the northwest. At the end of the 1990s, Huang Huaihai's work came to an end, and Li Baoguo began to participate in the work of desertification prevention and control in the northwest, traveling to many places in Gansu, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai.
"The people take food as the sky, and the soil is the foundation of grain production." Li Baoguo said that whether it is the treatment of low- and medium-yielding fields in the Huang-Huai-Hai that began in the 1960s, or the soil control in the northwest later, or the black soil protection in the northeast, the most fundamental purpose is to protect food security.
Even today, this is true. "China is a country with relatively insufficient arable land resources. Of the 9.6 million square kilometers, only 1.43 million square kilometers of arable land is available, accounting for more than 14%. The only arable land still has problems to be solved, whether it is degradation or desertification, which affects the food security of 1.4 billion people. Li Baoguo said.
By the time you know the Black Earth, it is already degrading
"In fact, the first time I saw the black soil in the northeast was in 1990, when I learned that the wind and sand in the western part of the northeast plain were very large, which not only affected the ecological environment, but also affected the black land." As the winds moved from west to east, the sand transported was deposited to gradually bury the black soil, gradually degrading the arable land. Li Baoguo said.
In 2008, Li Baoguo went to Lishu County, Jilin Province, to inspect the local agricultural experiment station. In the following two years, cooperation was carried out with the station, and China Agricultural University also established an experimental station there, and Li Baoguo was one of the original builders.
"The purpose of the initial establishment of the station was to establish a monitoring point to monitor changes in the local agricultural climate, soil conditions, etc., and to promote information agriculture." Li Baoguo said.
In the local area, the scale of land and the degree of agricultural mechanization are not high, and the promotion of information agriculture is difficult. Li Baoguo found that the problem of black land degradation is more serious than imagined, and the protection of black land may be more urgent than the promotion of information agriculture technology.
How serious is the degradation of black soils? At Pear Tree Station, there is a black soil profile observation point, and the thickness of the black soil layer is only about 30 centimeters. It is speculated that before human reclamation and cultivation, the black soil layer had 60-70 cm.
"It's not just the thinning of the black soil layer, but also the loss of organic matter in the soil." Li Baoguo said that in the past in the northeast, people said that chopsticks can sprout in the ground, "this is an exaggeration, but also shows that the black soil was once very fertile." By the time we started our research, it had become so barren that if we didn't apply fertilizer, there might have been no harvest. ”
"Giant pandas in cultivated land" there are only four large areas in the world
Black soil is known as the "giant panda in arable land", "this fertile soil accumulated by organic matter for tens of millions of years, there are only four large areas in the world, all at the same latitude, including The Northeast Plain of China, the Mississippi Plain of the United States, the Ukrainian Plain of Ukraine, and the Pampas Plain of South America, with a total area of less than 5 million square kilometers." China ranks third in terms of black soil area, with a total of 1.03 million square kilometers, while typical black soil is only 170,000 square kilometers. Li Baoguo said.
Li Baoguo introduced that under natural conditions, the vegetation on the grassland and meadow withered and decayed, and gradually became a soft and rich black soil rich in organic matter. When the land is reclaimed and the crops are harvested, the straw is also taken away; when the land is turned, the soil is directly exposed to the surface, and it is eroded by feng shui every year, causing the soil to be lost rapidly. At the same time, growing crops consumes nutrients from the black soil, and when the straw is taken away, the black soil is gradually degraded without organic matter naturalization. According to monitoring, the black soil layer should be reduced by a few millimeters, or even one centimeter, every year.
"The protection of black soil is very important and directly related to the food security of Chinese." Li Baoguo said.
In 2009, the Pear Tree Experimental Station began to build a test field in the local area to find ways to protect the black soil. In 2015, Li Baoguo and his colleagues held the first Black Land Forum at Lishu Station, inviting experts from home and abroad to discuss the methods of black land protection. This forum, which became the norm in the following seven years and was held annually, is now one of the most important academic gatherings in the field of black land conservation.
The "Pear Tree Model" is gradually recognized by society and academia
To protect black soil, it is necessary to understand the causes of the degradation of black soil.
Straw is the first problem, "Under natural conditions, the grass of the steppe, the withered glory, is there, born on the black soil, withered on the black soil, and finally returned to the black earth." From the experience of international management of black soil, as long as the straw leaves the field, it will seriously interrupt the cycle of nature, which may lead to the degradation of black soil. Li Baoguo said.
Ploughing is the second problem, which can cause the soil to be eroded by feng shui. Especially in the northeast, before spring ploughing every year, it is the time when the wind is the strongest, and the wind takes away the exposed soil, and the black soil layer becomes thinner year by year, and the degradation is faster.
The solution to the problem is actually in the problem. In Pear Tree, Li Baoguo and his colleagues have introduced and explored a set of conservation tillage methods for more than a decade. This set of methods includes full straw mulching, no-tillage and less tillage. In 2016, some media referred to this model as the "pear tree model", and in the following years, it was gradually recognized by society and academia.
"Conservation tillage, the core is two, the straw is all or as far as possible left on the surface, less soil. This method is actually to learn from nature and make the state of cultivated land as close to nature as possible. Li Baoguo said.
Li Baoguo explained that when the straw is fully covered, all the straw is left in the ground, just like the grass in the field, withering in place and turning into organic matter to return to the soil. Moving less soil is to change the mode of deep ploughing, and in nature, no one goes to ploughing the ground. It is impossible for human farming to completely leave the soil still, but it is necessary to move as little as possible to bring it close to nature.
Changing attitudes is a challenge for the promotion of conservation tillage
Straw mulching and less tillage and no-till are not entirely new models. In fact, this kind of conservation tillage, which is relatively mature in the world, is still controversial whether it is applicable in China.
Some scholars insist on the view that the use is greater than protection, which is related to the fact that China's per capita arable land area is small and the pressure on food security is greater. Another example is the full coverage of straw, which will also bring a variety of problems, such as slower straw corruption, affecting the next season's tillage and yield.
In this regard, Li Baoguo also has his own ideas, "Conservation tillage is based on nature, imitating nature, but not completely restoring nature." Conservation tillage is not about not farming, but about finding a way to sustainably cultivate it. ”
Li Baoguo believes that after years of experimentation, the mode of conservation tillage has gradually matured, in ordinary years, basically can maintain a yield similar to traditional farming, in dry years, the implementation of conservation tillage on the land, the yield will exceed the traditional way of farming land.
"The difference in concepts is precisely one of the biggest problems in black soil protection and even the promotion of conservation tillage today." Li Baoguo feels that the problem of technology is not complicated, and the real complexity is how to make technology play a greater role. "Protecting arable land is a practical task, and technology alone is not enough. In practice, there are indeed many difficult problems, such as the problem of concept change, the problem of how to operate a small piece of land on a large scale, as well as agricultural finance, insurance and other issues, all of which affect the landing of scientific and technological solutions. Protecting black soil and protecting arable land is a complex systemic issue that requires all-round promotion at all levels. ”
Craftsman's voice
Beijing News: In the process of achieving achievements, how did you show the spirit of ingenuity?
Li Baoguo: In the professional field, I think we must pursue scientific truth. Just like black land protection, we must first understand that the transformation from grassland ecology to agricultural ecology is the root cause of black land degradation. Whether it is governance or protection, scientific principles must be followed. From a personal point of view, we must strive for excellence, have reverence and admiration for the profession, and when protecting the soil, we must also have reverence for nature.
Beijing News: In your life and work, what things have you always adhered to?
Li Baoguo: Science is constantly improving, and we must persist in learning and constantly understand new knowledge in the professional field. At the same time, we must also understand the situation in the field, we spend a large part of our time in the field or at the grassroots level every year, because our work should be reflected there, and we do not understand the problems of the production line, whether it is to do learning or practice our professional knowledge, there is no way to talk about it.
Beijing News: When do you think it's the hardest? What are the reasons for sticking with it?
Li Baoguo: In the past few decades, we have done soil treatment in the Huang-Huai-Hai Sea, soil treatment in the northwest, and black soil protection in the northeast. Along the way, there may have been many difficulties such as scientific research funding and projects, but it does not mean that it is particularly difficult. As long as our profession is strong enough and our hearts are pursued, we can still do a lot of things, because the soil is under our feet, and the whole earth is the object of our research.
Beijing News: What achievements do you hope to achieve in the future, and what are your expectations for the future?
Li Baoguo: Cultivated land is the basic resource for human survival, and it is also the basic resource for future national rejuvenation and rural revitalization. In the future, I hope that the concept and action of protecting arable land will continue to improve, and I hope that young people in this professional field will be able to understand the needs of national development. Solidify their own professional foundation, and truly make their own contributions to food security and ecological security.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huaizong
Photo/Courtesy of the interviewee