Solving the Ecological Answer Sheet of Transforming Farmland into Good Farmland - Observing the Practice of Ecological Civilization in China: Soil | Earthworms | China

Beijing, June 7th (Xinhua) - Earthworms emerge during the second season of the beginning of summer, and they gather during the first season of the winter solstice. In the 72 phenological songs passed down from generation to generation by Chinese farmers, earthworms are messengers who know the farming season and are busy with farming.

This year, the little earthworm was written into the No. 1 central document. Electric fishing of earthworms, as a soil destruction behavior, will be severely punished.

Professor Kong Xiangbin from China Agricultural University believes that the entry of small earthworms from folk phenology songs into official documents sends an important signal.

"Soil animals, plants, microorganisms, and soil are an ecological community. As an important part of the community, increasing the number of earthworms is a key step in ensuring food security and achieving a healthy diet." Kong Xiangbin said, "Strictly cracking down on the behavior of electric fishing of earthworms indicates that the country attaches more importance to the biological characteristics of farmland and the optimization of soil at the micro level."

During the investigation, the reporter found that with the deepening of the concept of a community of shared life among mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasses, and sands, agricultural scientists and producers are increasingly focusing on strengthening the protection of arable land from an ecosystem perspective. They believe that farmland protection should not only maintain the bottom line of quantity, but also improve the quality of farmland, ensure the stability of farmland ecosystems, and turn farmland into good farmland by enhancing the sustainable utilization capacity of farmland resources, solidifying the foundation of food security.

On June 10, 2020, at the Abao Earthworm Breeding Cooperative located in Chengguan Town, Wuhe County, staff inspected the growth of earthworms. Shen Jizhong

The big layout behind the small earthworms

Although small, earthworms are known as "ecosystem engineers" and are the largest animal community in soil ecosystems. Earthworms are also an important biological indicator in China's soil census.

Last July, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, together with multiple departments, jointly deployed various regions to verify and rectify the issue of electric fishing of wild earthworms and illegal acquisition and processing of wild earthworms in areas such as farmland, forests, wetlands, grasslands, and nature reserves.

Li Xiaoxuan, a representative of the 13th National People's Congress, once put forward suggestions on cracking down on the indiscriminate use of electric fishing to kill earthworms and ensuring national farmland and food security. According to his calculations, some e-commerce companies have received orders of up to 1 million electric earthworm machines, which can capture and kill 7.5 billion earthworms within a year, equivalent to causing about 3.75 million acres of land to lose its ability to degrade pollutants.

"Earthworms play an important ecological role in improving soil fertility, promoting organic matter degradation and nutrient mineralization cycles, and improving microbial communities." Kong Xiangbin said that once earthworms are lost in farmland, it not only brings problems such as soil compaction, but also leads to imbalances in the agricultural ecosystem.

However, due to the fact that earthworms can be used in fields such as pharmaceuticals, feed, fish bait, and liquid fertilizers, and the high cost of artificial breeding, some unscrupulous merchants have used electric shock to hunt and kill earthworms in large quantities in recent years.

"The damage caused by the indiscriminate killing of earthworms by electric fishing to the ecosystem of cultivated land cannot be ignored, and it will bring about chain effects such as reduced food production. Severe crackdown on electric fishing of earthworms is also eliminating hidden dangers that threaten food security," said Li Xiaoxuan.

Yang Chaoxia, director of the Beijing Forestry University Ecological Law Research Center, believes that emphasizing the strengthening of soil biological protection indicates that China not only emphasizes the need to firmly maintain the red line of arable land, but also ensures the ecological health of arable land, achieving a balance between quantity and quality. "If all the earthworms are electrocuted, even 1.8 billion acres of arable land will remain, and due to the destruction of the ecosystem, the productivity of arable land will be significantly affected," he said.

From May 23 to 29, 2022, Heilongjiang Province launched the first Black Soil Protection Week, guiding the whole society to establish the concept of protecting black soil and protecting the "giant panda in cultivated land". Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Jianfei

The great protection contained in small straw

Just after the grain has passed, corn has entered a critical growth period. Zhao Xinkai, Chairman of Xinjuqiang Agricultural Machinery Planting Professional Cooperative in Dongfeng County, Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province, is full of confidence in this year's harvest.

"Previously, it was evident that the soil had turned yellow and degraded due to wind and water erosion, resulting in a decrease in the quality of the crops grown." Zhao Xinkai recalled that after using straw cover cultivation, the fertility of the land was reflected after two to three years.

Every autumn harvest, the farmers of Xinjuqiang Cooperative use professional machinery to cover the gaps between crops with straw. In the spring of the following year, they can directly sow corn in the fields covered with straw without the need to plow and ridge. It is reported that compared with traditional cultivation methods, using this protective tillage method reduces the use of chemical fertilizers by about 7 kilograms per acre of land, and the yield not only does not decrease, but may actually be higher.

"The black soil is back!" Zhao Xinkai exclaimed excitedly, "Protective farming methods have effectively prevented soil degradation and are indeed beneficial for food growth."

The fertile black soil in Northeast China is known as the "giant panda in cultivated land". The grain produced in the black soil area accounts for about 1/4 of China's total grain production, and is the "ballast stone" of China's food security.

The Black Soil Protection Law, which was officially implemented in August last year, proposed the principle of "combining use and cultivation", advocating the promotion of protective tillage techniques such as no tillage, less tillage, and deep loosening according to local conditions. The use of straw covering, crushing and deep burying or turning over, and conversion methods to improve the quality of black soil.

Zhao Xinkai said, "The reuse of straw provides a new approach to improving the quality of black soil and achieving sustainable cultivation, and plays an indispensable role in improving soil organic matter content."

According to the Action Plan for Conservation Cultivation of Black Soil in Northeast China, by 2025, the implementation area of conservation cultivation in Northeast China will reach 140 million mu, accounting for about 70% of the total suitable cultivated land area in Northeast China.

It is expected that by the end of this year, the implementation area of conservation tillage on black soil in Northeast China will increase to over 90 million mu.

On June 1, 2023, workers were harvesting lettuce in the greenhouse of Hebei Xuanmeng Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. in Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang, China. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Luo Xuefeng

The great prospect of nurturing a small ecological chain

At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs proposed measures such as promoting green planting and breeding cycle pilot projects, promoting ecological planting and breeding models, developing ecological low-carbon agriculture, and building a number of national ecological farms as key tasks for comprehensively promoting rural revitalization this year.

In a base of the Green State Planting Professional Cooperative in Chaihu Town, Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province, rows of green baby cabbage seedlings are formed.

The two brothers, Li Peng, who are in charge of the cooperative, have been continuously exploring the path of organic cultivation for many years, gradually forming an organic ecological cycle of raising cattle with corn, raising earthworms with cow manure, producing organic fertilizer from earthworm decomposition to nourish the soil, and raising white geese with the sale of surplus vegetable leaves.

Farmland is the lifeblood of agricultural production. In order to increase land fertility, the Green Fire Ecological Farm located in Miyun, Beijing will further expand the organic planting ecological chain. The farm collaborates with nearby dairy factories to ferment expired milk and other dairy products, generating soil organic fertilizer rich in plant protein and returning it to the field. The biogas residue generated from the fermentation of cow manure is collected from nearby cattle farms for soil cultivation. At the same time, the farm crushes and ferments the straw of its own organic vegetables and fruits to produce fertilizer, turning the waste produced by the farm into treasure to promote organic cultivation.

"We hope to use modern technological means to restore organic planting methods and bring agricultural products back to their natural taste." Farm manager Hou Binbin explained that due to people's increasing attention to food safety, organic vegetable and fruit sales are booming.

Last year, the number of sales stores opened by the farm in Beijing increased from 4 in 2017 to 6, with sales increasing nearly 6 times. The target customers have also become increasingly diverse, expanding from pregnant women and young mothers to the elderly and young population.

In Kong Xiangbin's view, as people's demands for quality of life continue to increase, their consumption preferences are also shifting towards healthy eating, which requires healthy food and healthy land.

The organic ecological planting chain built with healthy soil as the core not only meets people's food needs, but also provides an efficient solution for the protection of agricultural ecosystems.

"Nature has its own laws, and the role played by humans should be coordination rather than control. By nurturing the soil and managing production well, the final product must be more sustainable, high-yield, and healthier." Shi Yan, the head of Beijing Shunyi Sharing Harvest Ecological Farm, has a deep understanding of how farmland can become better.

"The value of ecological organic agriculture lies not only in higher biomass production per unit area, but more importantly, such production does not come at the cost of soil fertility. It is a truly sustainable production method that can last for decades, hundreds, or even longer." Shi Yan said. ■