Turning the desert into arable land: Lesson from the Chinese
Sep 11, 2012
As the Karimojong abandon their ancestral land and flock the city in search of greener pastures, their counterparts, the Hui people in the Ningxia Province of China, descend to the their gardens to cultivate.
By John Semakula
As the Karimojong abandon their ancestral land and flock the city in search of greener pastures, their counterparts, the Hui people in the Ningxia Province of China, descend to the their gardens to cultivate.
As a result, the Hui live larger than the Karimojong, despite the fact that both groups live in semi-arid areas where agriculture is hard to practise.
In Ningixia Province, an average farmer earns $100 (about sh250,000) per month from farming. But farmers in Ningxia do not depend totally on farming, but work in the mushrooming agricultural industries to earn an extra buck.
Today, Ningxia is one of the lead exporters of sweet potatoes to the Middle East. Karamoja can also export something to the ready regional market.
Ningxia is also a giant producer of a delicious type of water melon, which the athletes enjoyed during the 2008 Olympic Games in China.
The farmers in Ningxia also export vegetables to Hong Kong. This is a sign that desertification is no longer a ticket to poverty.
How they achieved this
Making Ningxia an agricultural hub has not come easy.
The Chinese government has injected over $1b in the last 10 years to stop the raging desertification.
Today, China has halted the advance of the desert in the province.
“We have had a break-through in anti-desertification. We have stopped the advance of the desert and turned it into a farm land,” said Lai Weili, the division head of plantations in Ningxia.
The Chinese government set up a network of water tubes for the irrigation of crops in the desert. A lot of money was sunk into the project.
Water for irrigation in China is drawn from the Yellow River.
The Chinese government is also encouraging private investors to invest in anti-desertification businesses like tree planting. In turn, the government gives the investors subsidies in form of simple loans and free land for such projects.
Wang Ting, the deputy general manager of Meili Forestry Company which owns miles of forests in a desert around Zong Wei City, says apart from planting forests to fight desertification, the trees also provide employment to the locals.
Zong’s company employs over 2,000 locals who are now living a descent life in a desert.
Research has also helped China to realise its goals. China has injected a significant amount of money in science and research with the aim of producing drought-resistant crops.
Officials said over 160 different crop species have been developed by 10 research institutes in the province in the last few decades.
To come up with drought-resistant crops, 300 researchers in Ningxia were hired to fine tune the quality (taste) and productivity (quantity) of new crop varieties.
That may differ from Uganda where some of the modified crops like bananas lose the taste and become unmarketable.
China also gives subsidies to farmers willing to use the new seeds. Uganda is yet to reach that level, a move that may help the citizens, like those of Karimoja.
The Ugandan government had initiated the NAADS programme to help the farmers access high quality seeds, but the project was bogged down by corruption.
The Chinese have gone far in science because the potato tubers, which they plant now can even grow above the ground. This type of sweet potatoes gives better yields.
Experts at the Ningxia Agricultural Department say one hectare of land yields over five tonnes of potatoes.
The tougher anti-desertification by-laws passed by the provincial and national governments in China have also helped the situation.
One of the laws passed by Ningxia prevents open grazing of cattle in its grasslands. Animals are reared under zero-grazing.
But zero-grazing has not prevented Ningxia from getting high yields.
Tough punishments are administered on those who breach the law by grazing the animals randomly.
As a result, the coverage of grasslands in Ningxia has increased by 30% in the last decade. In Karamoja, the nomads freely graze from one area to the other in the grasslands and each year, the desert continues to advance.
The Chinese government says it wants to help African countries like Uganda to grow by sharing its experience with its people, the onus remains on the Government to tap this golden opportunity.