Plant fiber turning desert to oasis

Turning a desert into an oasis is not a dream anymore. Yi Zhijian, a professor at Chongqing Jiaotong University, and his team have invented a plant fiber binder to transform sand into soil for farming, and the experiment is going smoothly in Inner Mongolia, Chongqing Daily reported.

The Ulanbuh Desert, about 14,000 square kilometers in area, lies on the west bank of the Yellow River in Alshaa League, Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Every spring, Beijing's sandstorms originate here.

In May 2016, the team successfully made about 16,667 square meters survive in the edge of the Ulanbuh Desert, two kilometers from the west bank of the Yellow River. In 2017, another experimental area of 2 square kilometers is now covered with hundreds of plants planted in February, such as trees, grass and crops.