On July 22, 2019, the Commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the Death of Qian Xuesen and the Seminar of the Work of the Sand Industry in Hexi Corridor co-organized by China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) and the Zhangye Municipal Government was held in Zhangye. Hu Deping, chairman of the CBCGDF and former deputy director of the Central United Front Work Department, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. Here, the contents of the speech are organized to readers.
Comrade Liu Shu, the honorary chairman of CBCGDF, is one of the earliest scientific workers to respond to Qian Xuesen's “sand industry” research, governance and utilization. I am very honored to accept her invitation to participate in the Commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the Death of Qian Xuesen and the Seminar of the Work of the Sand Industry in Hexi Corridor.
Comrade Qian Xuesen’s family history has been published in historical articles, and its cultural heritage has a long history. Qian surnamed the second among the hundred surnames. The new China was established, and he did not hesitate to go back to the country to participate in the construction of the motherland. He has lived and worked in the Republic for 54 years. He is not only the father of China's aerospace, the " Two bombs and one Satellite Award ", but also the first person in China to propose the "sand industry" project.
Some people compare the sand of the Ganges to the world of thousands of people. The imagination is extremely rich and romantic. However, the desert that is difficult for the world to survive is regarded as an industry that can be transformed, developed and utilized. It is even regarded as a living space that human beings can expand. A new industrial revolution that benefits the generations of human beings for generations. I think this is very significant.
Comrade Qian Xuesen not only has the idea of bravery and wisdom, but he also provides theoretical foundations and practices in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, and renewable energy. This is worthy of admiration and follow-up. His contribution to Two Bombs and One Satellite, his contribution to the knowledge-intensive agricultural industry in the later stages of life, has only one final destination for his starting point, for a community of shared future for mankind. His research on Two Bombs and One Satellite has safeguarded the country's security and world peace, making China's missile technology a world-class. But for the sand industry, the new agricultural industry should be actively used.
I want to talk about my understanding of the sand industry. The first point is the transformation of the sand industry. Under certain conditions, the greening work can transform the desert into a fertile land. For example, in the 20,000-square-kilometer Kubuqi Desert, a private entrepreneur has greened 4,000 square kilometers two years ago.
The second point is the agricultural project in the sand industry. A large area of rice cultivation in the desert has been successful in Inner Mongolia. Hetian in Xinjiang, Alashan Zuoqi in Inner Mongolia, and Wulan Buhe also is going to plant 200,000 mu of grassland this year. There are also special species in the desert, such as sand willow, sea buckthorn, sand jujube, alfalfa, and bush. As long as there is a certain amount of water, the desert area can also be transformed into an agricultural base where the fruit is fragrant.
Zhangye’s agriculture has embarked on a new path of “multiple light, less water, new technology, and high efficiency” on the northwestern land, rather than developing large-scale cultivated land. We use water to benefit and make the crops fully nutritious. If a large amount of water is used for irrigation, the salt contained in the saline-alkali land in the Zhangye area will rise, which will affect the ecology. Water is not used as much as possible. It is particularly meaningful to use water properly for crops. I think this is a new type of horticultural agricultural economy. The large area of North China needs to be operated on a large scale. In the hilly area of the south, more than 10 mu of land and more than 20 mu of land can be used as a family farm for horticultural agriculture and intensive cultivation. Therefore, new agriculture is not necessarily a large-scale industry. This new type of horticultural agriculture and family farming is particularly grounded here.
I don't know if there is a way out for industrial projects in the agricultural sand industry, but I know that the Silicon Valley in the United States is built next to the desert. The largest satellite base in China is in Badan Jilin in Alashan. The structure of sand molecules is silicon dioxide. The highly purified silicon is the raw material for making wafers. Silicon dioxide is also the raw material for photovoltaic products. Private entrepreneurs use natural silica to make new building materials, which are among the best in the world. Raw materials needed for technology. The new products created by humans using silica can only be said to be unprecedented.
The third point is that the hope of the sand industry lies in water, water in the ocean, rivers and lakes, glaciers and snow mountains, and water is still in the sky. Water not only has to go down, but also goes up, forming a cloud, which is the circulation of the atmosphere. How to measure the water in the sky? I think it is the rainfall across the country. If you combine the rainfall statistics for one year, what would it be? I have heard that the current rainfall of 50-100 in Qaidam and 400-600 in Zhuanglang has formed a microclimate. I think this is a result of the treatment of desert, desertification and arid land. Qilian Mountain, ecological environment.
Fourth, I want to say, what is a historical point of view? Every day we are exposed to real problems. How do we view historical views? As a time of history, there should be a beginning and a tail. From the 1980s, Comrade Qian Xuesen proposed the sand industry to the output of today's sand industry products. From 1983, Gansu carried out "planting grass and trees, getting rid of poverty and getting rich", "planting grass and trees, and developing animal husbandry". Compared with today’s outcomes, this is the history of success. The party and the state should recognize the contributions made in history.
Finally, for the provinces with a large geographical distribution of northwestern deserts such as Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, etc., we should make good use of desert resources and develop a good sand industry. The sand industry not only includes agriculture and agricultural industries, but also develops forest industry, grass industry and the livestock industry. It is a selective path.
My last thought is that agriculture is the first successful exchange of experience and labor with nature. Knowledge-intensive agriculture is a new industry that uses higher science and technology to exchange with nature. This new type of agriculture places special emphasis on the role of light. Our agriculture is exchanged with the sun and is a low-cost, high-yield exchange. Agriculture not only emphasizes water use, but also emphasizes water conservation. To see if there is water, to see the mountains. The agriculture in the Hexi Corridor is exchanged with the icebergs in the Qilian Mountain. Therefore, Qilian Mountain has become an ecological conservation area. New agriculture emphasizes greening the desert, but it does not advocate big expanding cultivated land on a large scale, this is to exchange land, to be green, but to be moderate, and soilless in the Gobi region; at some forums, we also heard this view, the warm and wet climate of the Indian Ocean is most north to the Qilian Mountain. Can it turn over the Qilian Mountain and come to the Hexi Corridor? Of course, this is also an exchange of atmospheric exchanges. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a water tower in Asia. It should not only send water to the south, but not to the north.
In short, in the face of the sand industry, in the face of the exploration and practice of science and technology workers in the knowledge-intensive agricultural industry, I would like to pay a high tribute on behalf of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), wishing the Zhangye area to add luster to the country with characteristic agriculture.
(Photo credit: CBCGDF)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/9471.html
By / Maggie