Valuable experience for sustainable agricultural development in arid regions

In July 2007, central and western Inner Mongolia went 40 consecutive days without effective rainfall. Nearly 2 million mu (about 133,000 hectares) of dry farmland in Ulaanqab saw crops fail completely, forcing farmers to drive their cattle and sheep from place to place looking for pasture.

This was how Xinhua News Agency described the drought in northern China that year. It also captured what the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, a major farming and pastoral region in northern China, had been struggling with for decades: drought once almost every year, extensive cultivation often leading to meager harvests, and an agricultural produce that seemed to forever depend on the weather.

As a provincial-level region spanning the greatest east-west distance in China, Inner Mongolia has 174 million mu of arable land and is an important grain production base as well as a major grassland livestock-producing region. However, drought and poor rainfall, soil salinization and alkalization, black soil degradation and inadequate agricultural infrastructure have long constrained agricultural development there.

At the beginning of the 21st century, medium- and low-yield farmland accounted for about 60 percent of the region's total arable land. Grain output fell from 15.75 million metric tons in 1998 to 12.42 million tons in 2000, a decline of more than 20 percent in just three years, while the incomes of farmers and herders remained unstable.

Arable land is the foundation of agriculture and the bottom line of food security. Since the end of the 20th century, China has launched a series of programs to improve medium- and low-yield farmland and carry out land consolidation. Inner Mongolia, too, embarked on a journey to protect its farmland and strengthen agricultural infrastructure.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, China has consistently pursued the food crop production strategy based on farmland management and technological application. It has continued to develop high-standard farmland, addressing weaknesses in irrigation, field roads and other infrastructure.

At the same time, it has promoted improved crop varieties, intelligent agricultural machinery and smart farming equipment, providing Inner Mongolia with a clear policy direction and institutional support for systematically strengthening long-term farmland protection and upgrading agricultural infrastructure.

Governments at all levels across the region have taken the initiative to fulfill their responsibilities, tightened accountability for farmland protection and pooled various sources of agricultural funding. Farmers and herders, meanwhile, have responded actively and participated in joint efforts to protect and manage farmland. Together, they have built a strong line of defense for farmland protection in Inner Mongolia and injected sustained momentum into the growth of grain production capacity.

Today's fields in Inner Mongolia have long left behind the old pattern of extensive cultivation, low yields and dependence on the weather. Vast stretches of fertile, well-organized farmland, capable of delivering stable harvests despite droughts and floods, are now unfolding across Inner Mongolia.

By the end of 2025, the region had built a cumulative 62.82 million mu of high-standard farmland, nearly half of its total arable land. These fields now account for more than two-thirds of the region's grain production capacity. Total grain output has reached more than 42 billion kilograms, marking a historic 22nd consecutive bumper harvest.

Inner Mongolia now sends more than 20 billion kilograms of marketable grain outside the region every year, placing it firmly among China's leading grain-producing provinces and regions.

Behind these figures lies a profound transformation in the way agriculture is practiced in Inner Mongolia. High-standard farmland projects have transformed fragmented and inefficient plots into larger, better-organized tracts with improved soil fertility. Longer industrial chains have enabled better farmland to produce better products and stronger brands. Science and technology have been embedded throughout planting, cultivation management and harvesting, raising production efficiency.

These three forces have reinforced one another, helping transform the region from "extensive cultivation with low yields" into "vast stretches of fertile land".

The development of high-standard farmland consolidates arable land through tailored, region-specific measures, providing a solid foundation for stable grain production.

Inner Mongolia spans a vast area, and the conditions of its farmland vary greatly between the east and the west. Salinization and alkalization are major problems in the west, while the east faces black soil degradation and fragmented plots. Rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all model, the autonomous region has addressed local soil problems with targeted solutions.

For example, Bayannuur city, which is located at the northern apex of the Yellow River's S-shaped bend, has integrated saline-alkali land improvement with high-standard farmland development. It has explored a package of technologies, including subsurface drainage for salt removal and integrated water and fertilizer management. As a result, the irrigated farmland once characterized by "white fields in spring and winter, yellowing seedlings in summer and autumn" has been revitalized.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, the city has implemented the plan to develope 4.36 million mu of high-standard farmland and fulfilled the task of more than 2.7 million mu, and cumulatively treated 1.92 million mu of salinized and alkalized farmland. Soil salinity has fallen significantly, while grain yields have steadily increased compared with the period before the adoption of improvement measures. Areas once covered by saline and alkaline soil have been transformed into fertile fields.

In the grassland of Hinggan League, located on the southern foothills of the Greater Hinggan Mountains, efforts have focused on black soil degradation and fragmented farmland. The region has consolidated scattered plots, promoted conservation tillage, improved irrigation, drainage and field-road networks, and introduced environmentally friendly rice-fish farming — a system combining the cultivation of rice with fish aquaculture to enhance soil fertility, reduce the need for chemical inputs, improve water management, and increase farm income through diverse products.

These efforts have helped build "Hinggan League Rice" into a product with national geographical indication status. Its market price is now two to three times that of ordinary rice, with golden waves of rice fields carrying new hope for ecological development and rural prosperity.

Organically integrating farmland enables land improvement matching local soil conditions, expands the area suitable for cultivation, strengthens resilience against natural disasters and promotes stable growth in grain production. Such high-standard farmland development is also diversifying industries and turning ecological strengths into economic advantages.

Building on its sound ecological environment and improved soil fertility, Inner Mongolia has been working hard to extend industrial chains and increase added value, moving farmland beyond the single function of grain production. This has opened a pathway from quality farmland to quality products and ultimately to strong brands.

The Hetao Plain, for example, has leveraged its fertile, improved farmland to produce high-quality wheat. Leading local enterprises sign contract-growing agreements with farmers and exercise unified management throughout the production process, linking everything from cultivation in the fields to processing in the factories.

The resulting flour has gained a reputation across China and is also exported to Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The orderly, contiguous farmland landscape has also created new opportunities for agritourism, further broadening farmers' sources of income.

By late 2026, Inner Mongolia had 983 products on China's national list of specialty, high-quality, new and distinctive agricultural products, ranking first nationwide. Annual sales of green, high-quality agricultural and livestock products exceeded 600 billion yuan ($89.38 billion), while the "Meng" brand of Inner Mongolian agricultural products continues to grow in recognition and value.

Inner Mongolia's experience demonstrates that protecting farmland and improving its productivity can generate a steady supply of high-quality agricultural products, which in turn create economic incentives for farmland protection.

This transforms farmland protection from a process requiring constant investment into one capable of generating sustainable returns, allowing farmland protection, industrial development and improvements in people's livelihoods to advance in tandem.

Agricultural technological innovation is also freeing up labor, providing a driving force for high-quality development of farming and animal husbandry.

Technologies such as biological breeding, intelligent agricultural machinery, digital agriculture and ecological soil improvement are being applied more extensively, shifting traditional agriculture from experience-based decision-making toward data-driven production and injecting sustained momentum into agricultural modernization.

At the same time, intelligent equipment and digital technologies have dramatically improved productivity, fundamentally changing the way farmers work in the fields. Agricultural machinery equipped with Beidou Navigation Satellite System and crop-protection drones have enabled comprehensive mechanization from planting to harvesting.

Sensors installed in fields can monitor soil moisture and pest conditions in real time, while farmers can remotely carry out precision irrigation and fertilization using their smartphones. A single person can now manage more than 1,000 mu of farmland, while the use of fertilizers and pesticides has fallen.

In 2025, the comprehensive mechanization rate for plowing, planting and harvesting across Inner Mongolia reached 90.74 percent, placing the region among the nation's leaders.

Better seeds matched with better farmland, combined with intelligent equipment suited to large-scale farming, have increased yields and fully unlocked the potential of the land. They have also substantially reduced labor costs, laying a solid foundation for more intensive and large-scale agricultural production.

Agricultural technological innovation is overcoming natural constraints, driving a green transformation of farming and animal husbandry and enabling sustainable development.

Inner Mongolia lies largely in arid and semi-arid areas. Water shortages, salinization and alkalization, and black soil degradation have long constrained agricultural development. Traditional extensive farming practices have also been detrimental to farmland conservation. Targeted technological innovation is therefore essential to achieving stable yields, higher productivity and green development.

Today, breakthroughs have been made in water-saving irrigation and soil improvement. Technologies such as drip irrigation and integrated water and fertilizer management have been widely adopted, raising the effective utilization coefficient of irrigation water across the region to 0.592. Technologies for the comprehensive treatment of saline-alkali land and conservation tillage on black soil have provided replicable approaches to improving farmland quality.

New quality productive forces include green productive forces in agriculture. Inner Mongolia has integrated biological breeding, digital technologies and ecological improvement into the entire agricultural production process. These efforts have not only safeguarded the red line for the quantity of arable land and strengthened the bottom line for farmland quality, but also unleashed new momentum for industrial development and created more channels for increasing the incomes of farmers and herders.

Looking back, by upgrading farmland through high-standard farmland development and empowering agriculture with technology, vast tracts of land in Inner Mongolia that once produced meager harvests have become stable, high-yield grain-producing bases.

Objectively speaking, however, there is still room for further development. Management and maintenance mechanisms for existing high-standard farmland can be improved further. The spread of advanced agricultural technologies across different regions can be further expanded. And the ecological and industrial value of farmland can be integrated more closely.

As China enters the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period and with Inner Mongolia pursuing its long-term goal of becoming an important national production base for agricultural and livestock products to contribute more to national food security, the region should continue to build on its progress.

First, with the goal of ensuring the long-term use and effectiveness of high-standard farmland, the region should gradually shift its focus toward upgrading and maintaining farmland that has already been developed. Management and control mechanisms should be improved, disaster-prevention infrastructure upgraded, and farmland made more resilient to extreme weather so that high-quality fields can continue to deliver stable harvests over the long term.

At the same time, the region should also make more efforts to bring advanced tools and methods closer to ordinary farmers and herders, thus narrowing regional development gaps.

In addition, Inner Mongolia should continue to strengthen the "Meng" brand of agricultural products, increase the share of deep processing and extend industrial chains. It should also actively explore ways to turn the ecological value of farmland into economic value, creating new and lasting incentives for farmland protection.

Today, as the spring breeze sweeps across the fields of Inner Mongolia, waves of wheat and rice ripple across the landscape. High-standard farmland stretches into the distance in neat, continuous blocks, while intelligent agricultural machinery moves back and forth between the rows. A modern agricultural landscape of abundant harvests and thriving farming and animal husbandry is gradually taking shape across the region.

Inner Mongolia's agricultural transformation is a vivid example of the food crop production strategy taking root in northern China. Looking ahead, this vast land will continue to generate new vitality, shouldering its responsibility for safeguarding China's food security while offering valuable Chinese experience for sustainable agricultural development in arid and semi-arid regions around the world.

The author is a professor of the School of Humanities and Law at Northeastern University. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

If you have a specific expertise, or would like to share your thought about our stories, then send us your writings at opinion@chinadaily.com.cn, and comment@chinadaily.com.cn.