[Ordos Desert Gold Diggers] Ordos Desert
Ordos, this city located in the hinterland of the plateau, was once known for its "proud and proud" (cashmere, coal, rare earths, natural gas). In 2011, Ordos' total GDP surpassed Xi'an and became the largest in the northwest; its per capita GDP surpassed that of Hong Kong and became the largest in the country. There is 1 billionaire for every 228 local people, and 1 multimillionaire for every 16 people.
The purpose of this reporter’s trip is the Kubuqi Desert, the seventh largest desert in China with an area of 18,600 square kilometers.
In Inner Mongolia, there was a jingle: In the 1950s, cattle and sheep were seen in the wind and grass; in the 1960s, there was indiscriminate land reclamation; in the 1970s, when the sand advanced and people retreated, there was no hiding place; in the 1980s, there was no place for people to hide in the sand. By the way, desert resources were treasures in the 1990s.
More than twenty years ago, not a single blade of grass grew in the Kubuqi Desert. The wind swept the yellow sand wildly across the sky. Over the years, the sand moved in and out, and even the birds stopped in sight. It was called the "Sea of Death." .
Today’s Kubuqi has clear water and blue sky, lush vegetation, gulls flying in the air, and criss-crossing highways passing through the sand. It takes into account both ecology and livelihood, as well as desertification control and wealth creation. The booming sand industry has turned this "dead land" "Sea" turned into a veritable gold mine.
Sauliu: From fire stick to "money tree"
Fuyuanquan Shaliu base is 40 kilometers away from Dalate Banner, Ordos, and was built by the Dongda Mongolian King Group. The group plans to build a Shaliu base with an area of 3 million acres, with a total investment of 290 million yuan.
Feng Junqi, deputy director of the Dongda Mongol King's Office, told reporters: "In the past, due to low enthusiasm for planting and managing Salix, farmers and herdsmen burned the Salix after stubble cultivation. Because Ordos The area is rich in coal, and many farmers and herdsmen are even unwilling to cut down Salix for fire. As a result, 60% of Salix cannot be harvested in time and eventually become dead branches in the desert."
The reporter is here. The locals learned that Salix salix, as one of the main tree species for preventing and controlling desertification, not only has strong wind-proof and sand-fixing properties, but is also a good raw material for papermaking, biomass power generation and animal feed.
Salix is an excellent raw material for papermaking and cardboard. The total fiber content of Salix is 75.83%. Dongda Mongolian King Group has cooperated with the National Papermaking Research Institute to develop papermaking technology using salix as raw material for pulping, producing high-strength corrugated paper and linerboard paper. Cartons made of salix as raw material are environmentally friendly and strong, and are especially suitable for the food packaging industry.
Feng Junqi introduced to reporters: "In addition to making paper, Salix can also be used to make particleboard for furniture."
After leaving the Salix base, the reporter came to Dongdalin again Sand Industry Particleboard Factory, the raw material of particleboard is Salix salix. Feng Junqi told reporters: "The construction of this particleboard factory started in 2010, with a planned investment of nearly 400 million yuan. The designed annual production scale is 100,000 cubic meters. It is expected to be put into production in the second half of this year."
Reporters see By arrival, the equipment in the factory building has been installed and the construction of the factory area has been completed. Moreover, not far from the factory, the Fengshuiliang 8,000-kilowatt photovoltaic power station is under construction. The reporter saw that rows of solar panels have been installed. This solar power station built on the desert will supply power to surrounding factories in the future.
In addition, the twigs and young shoots, which account for about 15% of the weight of Salix and are rich in plant protein, can be processed into high-quality feed for cattle, sheep, and rabbits after being mixed with the grass interplanted by Salix.
Salix is also an excellent raw material for biomass power generation. Among sand plants, the calorific value of salix is second to none, which is equivalent to the calorific value of ordinary electric coal, and the harmful gases and residues produced by combustion are very small. In addition to using salix to generate electricity and then directly selling the electricity to obtain economic benefits, companies can also trade carbon rights internationally due to their "green power" attributes. The reporter learned locally that in the Mu Us Desert, a company uses Salix salix for a biomass power generation project. It has become the first project in the world to use sand shrub biomass for direct combustion power generation.
In the Kubuqi Desert, after the rise of Salix processing enterprises represented by Dongda Mongolian King, they led local farmers and herdsmen to plant a large number of Salix, which not only effectively controlled the local desertification hazards, but also effectively controlled the ecological environment. The environment has been significantly improved, and a way out has been found for the "secondary small fuel wood" Salix. Local farmers and herdsmen have increased their income by planting Salix, and the original fire sticks have now become a "money tree."
Licorice: the "King of Medicines" in the Desert
In the course of more than 20 years of desertification prevention and control, Elion Group has also discovered the utilization value of deserts. Deep in the Kubuqi Desert, there is a considerable stock of precious natural plants, such as licorice, caragana, half-day flower, Bawang, Mongolian astragalus, and holly, and more than 160 rare desert xerophytes and Chinese medicinal materials.
This humble licorice not only has the task of preventing sand and protecting rivers, but is also a precious Chinese medicinal material in the desert. Inner Mongolia is also an important licorice-producing area in China. In particular, the licorice grown in the Kubuqi Desert is well-known in the traditional Chinese medicine community for its red color, thin skin, heavy bones, and high medicinal value. Its "Northwest Gou" licorice, "Liangwai" Licorice is also of excellent quality.
Wang Wenbiao, chairman of Elion Resources Group, is a native of the desert. He has a mixed love and hate for the desert: "The desert poses a threat to humans, but there are also many rare medicinal materials in the desert. In the Kubuqi Desert , there are nearly 5 million acres of pollution-free and pollution-free sand flat land. If used to grow medicine, the harvest will definitely be huge. There is almost no trace of reclamation in the desert. It is a rare pure land where extreme things must grow in such an extreme environment. "Precious resources."
In the past 20 years, Elion has built a 242-kilometer long and 3 to 5-kilometer-wide Mother River Suobian Forest project in a narrow strip of land on the northern edge of the Kubuqi Desert and the south bank of the Yellow River. Xerophytes, mainly licorice, are planted on a large scale, and licorice and other arid plants are used in the deep processing industry of medicinal plants.
At the licorice base, Ji Zhenyu, the brand manager of Elion Resources Group, pulled up a licorice root and introduced to reporters: "Licorice looks very ordinary on the surface, like a weed, and its medicinal parts are in the roots and rhizomes. Generally, the licorice can be harvested after 2 to 3 years of reproduction. The licorice here is grown by local farmers and herdsmen, and they are invested with desertified land use rights. Our company mainly adopts the operating mechanism of "company plus farmers, enterprise plus base" to promote agriculture and animal husbandry. Planting trees and licorice by the people not only expands the scale of the company's development, but also drives farmers and herdsmen in desert areas to become rich."
In the process of developing the traditional Chinese medicine industry, Elion has successively acquired companies in Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Shanghai, Shaanxi, etc. Several local pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical sales companies have introduced world-leading production lines from abroad.
The reporter came to the pharmaceutical branch of Elion Energy. As soon as he entered the factory, he smelled the familiar smell of licorice tablets. Yang Hui, deputy general manager of the company, joked to reporters: "At first I felt uncomfortable smelling this smell every day, but now I feel uncomfortable if I don't smell the smell of licorice for a day."
Walking in the factory area, Yang Hui introduced to reporters: " The entire pharmaceutical branch plans to use more than 500 acres of land. What you are seeing now is the first phase of the project. The second phase of the project also includes a health care product workshop and a traditional Chinese medicine extraction workshop. It is planned to start construction this year. "Going into the lobby outside the workshop, there is an entire pharmaceutical. Factory distribution map and licorice series medicine exhibition hall.
Yang Hui held a bag of licorice slices and introduced: "High-quality licorice slices like this can be sold for more than 100 yuan per kilogram abroad. They are mainly sold to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Singapore in China. In Japan, South Korea and other countries, what is sold in domestic pharmacies is basically very fine licorice (licorice is divided into grades A, B, C and D, with licorice having the lowest grade). ”
Yang Hui took reporters to the medicine. The exhibition hall introduced to reporters: "Licorice was known as the 'King of Medicines' in ancient times. Now we mainly produce a series of traditional Chinese medicine products using licorice as raw materials, such as Licorice Liangyan, Compound Licorice Tablets, Licorice Mixture, and Compound Zhigancao Granules. , Licorice Shuang, Licorice Zinc Tablets, etc. ”