CHINA-ARABLE LAND-SCI-TECH INNOVATION (CN)

CHINA-ARABLE LAND-SCI-TECH INNOVATION (CN)

(230618) -- CHONGQING, June 18, 2023 (Xinhua) -- This photo taken on May 23, 2023 shows an agricultural machine harvesting at a "desert soilization" base in Hotan Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. TO GO WITH "Across China: Sci-tech innovation turns desert sands into arable land" (Xinhua)

CHINA-ARABLE LAND-SCI-TECH INNOVATION (CN)

CHINA-ARABLE LAND-SCI-TECH INNOVATION (CN)

(230618) -- CHONGQING, June 18, 2023 (Xinhua) -- This photo taken on June 2, 2023 shows an agricultural machine working to prepare for crop planting at a "desert soilization" base in Alxa League, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. TO GO WITH "Across China: Sci-tech innovation turns desert sands into arable land" (Xinhua)

Sci-tech innovation turns desert sands into arable land

STORY: Sci-tech innovation turns desert sands into arable land DATELINE: June 18, 2023 LENGTH: 00:01:52 LOCATION: CHONGQING, China CATEGORY: ENVIRONMENT/TECHNOLOGY SHOTLIST: 1. various of the pilot fields in the Ulan Buh Desert in Inner Mongolia 2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): LI YA, Desert soilization team, Chongqing Jiaotong University 3. various of the pilot fields in the Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region 4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): WANG ZHIXIANG, Desert soilization team, Chongqing Jiaotong University STORYLINE: Using an innovative technique called "desert soilization," a group of Chinese scientists have turned barren desert sands into productive, farmable land at an affordable cost in northwest China. In 2013, Professor Yi Zhijian and his team from Chongqing Jiaotong University patented the technique after years of research, giving sands the same properties as soil -- with the same capacity to sustain water, air and fertilizer. The first test plot was established in the Ulan Buh Desert in