Principle and Method of Modern Agricultural Two-Dimension Optimization Engineering Experiment: A Case Study of Mu Us Sandy Land

Yongsheng Wang , Yuheng Li , Yansui Liu

Strategic Study of CAE ›› 2019, Vol. 21 ›› Issue (2) : 48 -54.

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Strategic Study of CAE ›› 2019, Vol. 21 ›› Issue (2) :48 -54. DOI: 10.15302/J-SSCAE-2019.02.017
Planning, Construction and Management of Villages and Towns
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Principle and Method of Modern Agricultural Two-Dimension Optimization Engineering Experiment: A Case Study of Mu Us Sandy Land
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Abstract

Land is the all-important resource and material for human survival and development. Healthy, ecological, and highly efficient farmland is the basis of modern agriculture. Eliminating land use obstacles and improving crop living conditions are improtant for providing healthy and fertile soils for improved crop varieties. This study intends to address the issues of sandy land consolidation and sustainable use in Mu Us Sandy Land area. Soil reconstruction with natural red clay or loess is an economical and ecological method for sandy land improvement. Complex technology systems and patterns are constructed through land consolidation engineering experiments, including sandy land structuralization consolidation, crop varieties optimized selection, and water and fertilizer precision management. Sandy soil oriented consolidation will provide scientific supporting for degraded land consolidation and modern agrciultural development. In the furture, a related land engineering technonolgy system and a whole-chain land project management mechanism should be intensified through soil reconstruction, farmland building, and soil improvement from micro, meso, and macro level, respectively.

Keywords

土地整治工程 / 现代农业 / 土体重构 / 作物优选 / 毛乌素沙地 / land consolidation / modern agriculture / soil reconstruction / crop optimized selection / Mu Us Sandy Land

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Yongsheng Wang, Yuheng Li, Yansui Liu. Principle and Method of Modern Agricultural Two-Dimension Optimization Engineering Experiment: A Case Study of Mu Us Sandy Land. Strategic Study of CAE, 2019, 21(2): 48-54 DOI:10.15302/J-SSCAE-2019.02.017

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1 Research background and progress

Agriculture in China faces conflicts and challenges in various fields: productive resources and demand, agricultural population and labor force, infrastructure and natural disasters, product quantity and structure, and operating cost and benefit. As a result, accelerating the development of a new mode of agricultural production is essential, which considers the resources and does not overburden the environment. Land is a fundamental resource for human survival and development. Farmlands in good condition, which are both ecological and highly efficient, underpin modern agriculture. Nonetheless, rapid industrialization and urbanization have caused a raft of issues in sustainable utilization of land resources, including the non-agriculturalization of farmlands resulting from large-scale city sprawl, abandoned land due to disordered rural development, land pollution from random pollution emissions, and steady decline in the quantity of high-quality cultivated land [1]. Furthermore, land sandification, salinization, and water and soil loss have yet to be reversed at a basic level. The situation calls for intensive, engineering-based, and technology-based land development, utilization, and consolidation. These actions would provide scientific and technological support for managing the quantity, quality, and protection of the ecology of resources [2,3].

In terms of improving the quality of cultivated land, a critical role for land-engineering technology is necessary, which is emphasized by the strategy of innovating technologies for thorough explorations of land, sea, and air as as land engineering. Land-engineering technology also plays a pivotal role in improving the consolidation of degraded land, utilizing waste land, and restoring land ecology. It further aims to enhance the application of engineering- and ecology-based technology in land consolidation. Viewed at a regional level, land consolidation includes consolidation of basic farmland construction, comprehensive farmland, rural settlement, and unused and degraded land [4]. Recent years have demonstrated innovation and development in engineering practices of land consolidation, which include the shaping of land parcels, high-standard farmland construction such as irrigation water conservancy. These engineering practices also include field roads, recognition and demolition of idle rural wasted areas, construction of farmland background [5,6], reformulation of soil from sandy land and red puddle (sandstone) [7], ditch consolidation and land formation in hilly loess areas [8], comprehensive control of stony desertification in the Karst region [9], and (in terms of methodology), change from discharging to storage of alkali soil [7]. The results of the planting adaptability of different crops in the reformulated soil demonstrated that wheat, corn, and soybean experienced the highest output when sandstone and sand were mixed at the ratio of 1:2, and potato achieved the highest yield at the ratio of 1:5 [7]. The First Expert Workshop on Land Engineering Technology of Modern Agriculture held in Yulin in the Shaanxi province in 2016 demonstrated the relationship between optimized allocation of fertile farmlands with land consolidation and optimized selection of improved varieties in modern agriculture. The workshop came up with considerations and measures for promoting innovative double-optimization engineering technology in modern agriculture that is well-suited to China’s national conditions and the regional characteristics of agro-pastoral transition zones.

2 Test of modern agriculture dual-optimization project

2.1 Project test design

The test station is situated in the Yulin Modern Agriculture Science and Technology Demonstration Area, which is a national agricultural science and technology park. It is located in Yubujie Village (38°22' 43" N, 109° 26' 05" E) in Niujialiang Township, Yuyang District, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province. The test station is 125-m long from east to west and 65-m wide from north to south and has a total area of approximately 0.8 hm2 . The northern and southern parts of Yulin are wind-sand grass land and gully areas of loess hill, which account for 42% and 58% of the total area in Yulin, respectively. Specifically, the sandy-land area is 5.3 ×106 hm2 , which accounts for 91.65% of unused land area in Yulin. The research area has a temperate continental monsoon climate with average annual temperature and precipitation of 8.1 °C and 413.9 mm, respectively. The research area has abundant underground water resources at approximately 20 m under its riverbed, rich light resources, and sufficient amount of heat. Therefore, Yulin was recognized as an important construction base of Shaanxi No. 2 Granary in Shaanxi in 2013.

The original soil texture in the test area is natural sandy land consisting of quartz and other minerals and shows signs of severe wind erosion. Sand grains are the main composition of the soil-grain size. Under the loess–ancient soil order in the fourth age in North China, the northern red clay of the later third age widely developed and was distributed all over the Loess Plateau (Fig. 1) with a thickness that ranged between 50 and 70 m. The thickness of the red clay in the Jiaxian County of Yulin is 65 m [7], making it an efficient method to save water compared with the locally used traditional sandy-land-plowing process. The precipitation in the Mu Us Sandy Land area will likely increase [14], and the area has rich underground-water resources, shallow burial depth, and abundant underground water that exists within 20 m of the bottom of its river, guaranteeing water resource for land consolidation and utilization. Moreover, fertigation equipment and drip irrigation are used in the Modern Agriculture Dual-Optimization Project, which ensure precise management of water and fertilizer and avoid ecological risk in the development of water and land resources in the area. In terms of model replication and application, active research may be conducted in the area among peasant households who engage in small-scale production and large-scale planting enterprises to explore sandy-land consolidation and employ a utilization mode suitable for planting by the peasant households and large-scale planting by enterprises. Model screening, application, and optimization provide professional technology and a whole-chain productivity system for the development of modern agriculture based on the project tests conducted on the farmlands, which can effectively increase the compatibility of model application and, to an extent, cut back production cost.

Currently, global change, rapid urbanization, and irrational land use have resulted in degraded land, including desertification, salinization, and water and soil loss. We need to carry out land-measure and formula-based soil formulation and delve into the technology for structural land consolidation based on physical and chemical tests, area-based tests, and farmland observation. Studying the principle of compatibility between land-use suitability and physiological adaptation of crops is also essential to create, in a scientific manner, healthy soil body and ecological farmland systems. Comprehensive land consolidation facilitates the creation of high-quality farmlands, innovation in land-operation mechanism, development of rural complex, and formulation of a rural revitalization strategy, which are supported by multi-functional modern agriculture and characterized by the integration of man, land, and business (see Fig. 5). Future studies should focus on enhancing scrutiny of land-engineering chain, applying the principles of system theory and theories of natural science, engineering, agronomy, management, economics, and other disciplines. These studies should aim to tackle land-use issues, combine positional observation with engineering demonstration, and promote land engineering- and technology-based solutions to engineering problems and address precise technical issues. Thus, a whole-chain land project-management mechanism is created using engineering management, resource management, information management, and other relevant theories and realizes systematic standardization of the reformulation of micro land, creation of meso-soil body, improvement of macro-soil quality, and tackles macro-man–land relationship issue through micro-water– land and crop–land relationships.

Fig. 5. Framework diagram of the problematic land consolidation and modern-agriculture development.

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