China
November 12, 2010
Nearly 1 million hectares of black soil in Northeast China will disappear in 50 years, according to the current annual soil erosion rate, a geosciences expert said during a special lecture held by the 11th NPC Standing Committee for the revision of Water and Soil Conservation Law on Thursday.
The data was collected through the scientific research conducted by China’s Ministry of Water Resources, the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, from July 2005 to May 2007. The survey covered 22 provinces and an area of 5,190,000 square meters, more than half of China’s total territory.
According to their calculations, nearly 0.4 -0.7 centimeters of surface black soil in Northeast China is washed away annually. And, after 70 to 80 years’ of farmers plowing their fields, there will only be 20-30 centimeter of the previously 1-meter thick black soil layer left.
Sun Honglie, a researcher at the Geographical Science and Resources Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was quoted by the Beijing-based Science Times as saying that “You can even see yellow soil under the black soil layer of much of the farmland in Northeast China.”
Sun said that the main reason for the soil erosion in Northeast China is the straight plowing in the sloped farmlands.
“Gullying in the sloped farmlands - which may cause the eroded soil to be easily carried away - is another main cause,” Sun Keqin, a geographical expert at the China University of Geosciences, told the Global Times.
Sun Keqin also said that frequent natural disasters such as floods and landslides - and low environment protection awareness - could also make farmlands less fertile and more arid.
“A large quantity of soil erosion will certainly exert great unfavorable influence on the grain production volume,” he added.
China’s Northeast area is considered to be one of the largest regions of black soil in the world and an important domestic grain production base. A CAS survey shows that in the next 50 years the grain production output will be reduced by 40 percent due to the loss of black soil.
In addition to Northeast China, there are also concerns about the stony desertification area in Southeast China’s Karst Region and the soil erosion area in Chinese Loess Plateau - in the upper reach of the Yangtze River – which the survey shows have expanded greatly.
“Nearly 100 million people will lose the farmland they live on in the next four or five decades,” Sun Honglie said. “Research shows that the loss caused by the soil erosion will constitute nearly 3.5 percent of China’s GDP.”
Sun Keqin said that the soil erosion could pose a great challenge to the national grain security, water quality and ecological environment. He called for measures to curb more soil erosion.
“Redundant farmland reclamations for factory construction and deforestation should be avoided,” Sun Keqin said, “Meanwhile, relevant government organs are recommended to increase their information sharing and cooperation to implement the disaster prevention mechanism.”
But he said the most efficient way should be scientific plowing in sloped farmlands and long-term prevention plans - such as reseeding trees and establishing small-scale reservoirs and soil conservation projects, to improve the agricultural plant conditions and optimize the utilization of resources.
(Global Times)
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