Navoi province delegation led by the governor Normat Tursunov, currently in China, is studying effective models to combat desertification, the governor’s office press service said.
The delegation got acquainted with the model to combat desertification used in the Ningxia province of China. A preliminary agreement was reached to test this model in the desert areas of Navoi province.
Reportedly, Navoi and Ningxia provinces are similar in terms of presence of strong winds and other aspects. The methods having been in Ningxia since the 1980s resulted in sands having receded and lands having been restored. That is, not only tree planting in the province, but also sand-retaining shrubs, protective strips, gardening and animal husbandry have been combined into a single chain. As a result, vegetation cover has been restored in desert areas. Desertified lands in the province have been consistently reduced over the past 20 years.
Several methods are used to combat desertification in Ningxia. One of them is the straw checkerboard method, where wheat or rice straw is placed in 1-square-meter grids to increase surface roughness, reduce wind velocity, and prevent sand movement. This slows down the wind and prevents the sand from moving. Then various plants are planted inside these fences. In this way, wind erosion is reduced by 95%, and the viability of trees and shrubs is significantly increased.
