BEIJING: Developing conservation tillage with improved farming techniques and agricultural machinery can increase grain production on the black soil in Northeast China, protect land resources and increase farmers’ incomes, agricultural experts say.
On Monday — Black Soil Conservation Day in Jilin province — more than 300 agricultural experts from home and abroad, including major black soil areas in the world such as the United States and Russia, gathered in Changchun, the provincial capital, to discuss topics related to the conservation and utilization of black soil.
“Black soil is a precious agricultural resource,” said Professor Jia Zhongjun from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology. “With a large population and limited land, China is under pressure to feed its people. Therefore, great emphasis has been placed on the development and protection of black soil, accumulating rich farming techniques and experiences. We hope to exchange ideas with agricultural experts from around the world.”
China is one of the world’s four typical black soil regions, with approximately 50 million hectares of black soil mainly concentrated in Northeast China.
“Black soil feeds the world,” said Tong Yuxing, an official from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
However, despite being a major grain-producing region in China, the organic matter content in the topsoil of the black soil region in Northeast China has decreased by over 50 percent in the past 100 years. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
