Women at helm of green transition

Editor's note: As the protection of the planet's flora, fauna and resources becomes increasingly important, China Daily is publishing a series of stories to illustrate the country's commitment to safeguarding the natural world.

Women have played a central role in the green transition in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, spearheading the evolution of desert management into a multidimensional framework encompassing planting trees and cash crops, establishing vast solar arrays and improving local livelihoods.

According to the local authorities, women make up roughly 70 percent of the workforce in the agricultural demonstration zone of Dalad Banner, Ordos, anchoring the multidecade green effort of ecological repair with commercial enterprise.

At the Engebei Ecological Demonstration Zone in Dalad Banner in the city of Ordos, tropical crops are being grown inside semi-sunken greenhouses engineered to withstand the region's brutal winters.

Wrapped in thick thermal fabric quilts, these desert greenhouses rely entirely on solar energy for heating. As a result of their specialized passive insulation design, the facilities maintain soil temperatures above 15 C year-round, even when winter temperatures in the unforgiving desert plummet to lows of — 30 C.

Behind the desert greenhouse agriculture initiative is Liu Xueqin, a distinguished agronomist who has dedicated 18 years of her career to agricultural research and desert transformation in Engebei. Located in the central stretch of the Kubuqi Desert — one of China's largest deserts — Engebei suffered from environmental decline and desertification driven by excessive reclamation and overgrazing.

To combat this, Liu has dedicated her time to developing desert agriculture in the zone, testing more than 300 crop varieties and accumulating extensive practical planting experience.

The desert project's goal of growing high-value fruit crops in arid terrain faced significant early setbacks. Papaya seeds took a full month to germinate, with no visible aboveground growth for weeks. Even banana seedlings — developed from tissue-culture plantlets carried on China's Shenzhou IV space mission — failed to acclimate when moved outdoors to harden against extreme weather. Frost killed their stalks, though the roots survived and the plants later recovered indoors.

Undeterred by the disappointing trial results, Liu continued her research. She dug into the soil and uncovered root systems that were still alive. She moved fragile saplings back into the greenhouse, where the plants recovered. They eventually grew more vigorously and went on to develop tolerance to near-zero temperatures.

Raised in rural Heze, Shandong province, Liu graduated from the Gansu Agricultural University with a qualification in grassland science in 2008. That same year, she went to Engebei. The conditions were so challenging that Liu was the only graduate who stayed.

"If I were a plant, I would be alkali grass, able to survive wherever I am planted," Liu said.

Liu's exhaustive trials and efforts over the years were rewarded in 2024, when her Enguo No 1 papaya variety was recognized as a local specialty by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The secret to her success, Liu said, is that she doesn't use chemical fertilizer, pesticide or herbicide, and instead rehabilitates raw desert soil with composted sheep manure.

This trick, which Liu calls her "greatest treasure", involves spreading 24 cubic meters of manure per hectare over three years, enabling grass to grow.

"The fields should grow grass. Grass is not harmful," Liu said, adding that grass is part of a low-input system that, over time, builds organic matter in the soil and saves money.