What did the lessons of the former Soviet Union in reclaiming wasteland tell us?

Following the Black Storm in North America in 1930s, the former Soviet Union failed to learn the historical lessons of the western development of the United States, and was attacked by the Black Storm in 1950s and 1960s, which brought serious disasters to the agricultural production and people's life of the former Soviet Union.

Starting from 1954, the former Soviet Union mobilized a large number of laborers in Kazakhstan, Siberia, Urals, along the Volga River and parts of the North Caucasus, carried out large-scale immigration and reclaimed a large number of wasteland. During 10, nearly 60 million hectares of land were reclaimed. In the early years, due to the original fertility of newly reclaimed land and good climate and other ecological conditions, the grain output of the Soviet Union at that time increased greatly.

However, those who violate the laws of nature will be punished in the end.

Because the former Soviet Union abused land in the process of reclamation, the farming system was chaotic; The lack of shelterbelts and successive years of drought have led to serious wind erosion in newly reclaimed wasteland. Since 1960, these areas have been frequently attacked by black storms, which have caused a large area of crops to be destroyed, and a large number of newly reclaimed land has become barren sand dunes, and many newly reclaimed land has to be abandoned.

1960 two black storms

1In March and April, 1960, the newly reclaimed areas in the former Soviet Union suffered two black storms. These two black storms swept across a vast area in the southern part of the Russian steppe, causing soil particles, seeds and even seedlings and large pieces of soil on newly reclaimed land to be blown to pieces. The intensity of the black storm is the strongest here, so the disaster is also the most serious.

The first black storm started in March of 16, blew for 1 week, and didn't disappear until 23rd. At that time, the wind speed was amazing, about 12~ 15 m/s, and the climate was very dry on the steppes of Kazakhstan and Siberia. Whenever spring and the turn of spring and summer, strong winds often blow here. After large-scale land reclamation, vegetation has been destroyed, and the soil surface of newly reclaimed land has become very loose. This time, the wind roared and took away a lot of loose topsoil. In an instant, dust was flying all over the sky, and the blue sky was shrouded in dark dust and fog. Under the attack of this huge black storm, the cultivated land of the farm that has been in operation for many years was completely destroyed in a few days. Many farms don't harvest grain or even seeds.

It never rains but it pours. Less than 1 month, the black madman came again. The black storm in April is more serious than that in March. Although the strongest storm is still in the Russian steppe, the disasters in other areas are equally tragic and the scope of being ravaged is wider.

Over the villages and cities of Ukraine, black dust turned the originally clean and sunny sky into a layer of black fog. People walking in the street are flashing flashlights, cars on the road are flashing lights, and thick dust is accumulated in houses and offices.

In the vast area of the western part of the former Soviet Union, even Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and the former Yugoslavia, which are adjacent to the Soviet Union, are filled with dust and fog, like dark clouds. In Belarus and eastern Poland, sunlight is blocked by dust and visibility is extremely poor. You can't see any buildings for a few meters. The dust is carried away by the strong wind, and the black dust turns into a black cloud at the top of the mountain, with a cloud thickness of1500 ~ 2500m.

According to the disaster statistics of the former Soviet authorities, two black storms in 1960 caused more than 4 million hectares of spring sowing crops in the former Soviet reclamation area. Strong winds destroyed a large area of crops and fields, and many fertile farmland topsoil was blown away. In some places, the thickness of topsoil scraped has reached 300 ~ 500 mm. It is estimated that the total amount of sand blown into the sky in 4 million hectares of cultivated land is about 96,000 tons, and sand has blocked many irrigation canals. The length of the irrigation network that has been filled up is 1.50 kilometers, and at the same time, roads and gullies along roads have been filled up.

Black storm of 1963

Nature's revenge on mankind is merciless.

Three years later, there was another black storm in these newly reclaimed areas. Although this black storm was not as serious as the two times of 1960, it had a wider impact.

The western and eastern parts of Kazakhstan and Siberia belong to arid and semi-arid grassland areas. The frost-free period in these areas is extremely short, with an average of only about 1 10 days. In most areas, the annual rainfall is less than 300mm/kloc-0, and the maximum rainfall is 1 45mm in the growing period of crops. The climate here belongs to a strong continental climate. Whenever summer comes, the weather is extremely hot, often accompanied by strong winds, which leads to extremely rapid evaporation of water and severe dry weather. In the newly reclaimed area of Kazakhstan, there are 7 years of long-term drought in 10. In addition to drought, there is also a disastrous climate-strong wind. During the 1 year in these areas, there is no wind for only 50~60 days on average. It is often windy in late winter, late spring and early summer, and the wind speed sometimes exceeds 20 meters per second.

1963, the drought here is more serious. In 4~6 months, there has never been a drop of rain in the newly reclaimed area. During this severe drought, strong winds blew again, and the dry upper surface layer was blown up in a large area, sweeping the whole prairie and forming a strong black storm disaster.

Dust storms in Central Asia can also be felt in Inner Mongolia and Beijing, which are several meters away from Qian Qian. 1965 winter and 1966 spring, the grassland in central inner Mongolia was twice attacked by sandstorms from central Asia. Among the meteorological observation records of Beijing Meteorological Observatory, 1965 and 1966 recorded 20 times and 12 times respectively for the first time, which is unique since 1950 was systematically observed.

The disaster caused by the black storm is enormous.

In the newly reclaimed area of Kazakhstan, the affected area reached 20 million hectares. In Pavel Roda alone, 65,438+000 hectares of crops were seriously damaged, many of which were completely destroyed, and more than 200,000 hectares of cultivated land were covered with thick sand. After the black wind, more than 800 thousand hectares of cultivated land in the state were abandoned.

The causes of the formation of black storms

Just like the cause of the black storm in the western United States, there are some fundamental human factors in the newly reclaimed areas of the former Soviet Union in addition to the harsh climatic conditions.

The first is the abuse of land.

The former Soviet Union did not establish a scientific farming system on newly reclaimed land, but sowed spring wheat year after year. Some newly reclaimed land has no crop rotation system and fallow land. It has sown a single crop for six years in a row and squeezed out food from the wasteland indefinitely, which consumes the productivity of the land, causes serious damage to the soil structure and leads to serious wind erosion of the newly reclaimed land.

At the same time, in order to expand grain production, land unsuitable for growing grain has also been reclaimed indiscriminately. After a lot of cultivated land was destroyed, it became a pasture. Thousands of farms in Baju Roda, Kazakstan and Dezhou, Custa have changed to animal husbandry or forest animal husbandry according to local natural conditions. Because of this land abuse, soil fertility is destroyed and easily eroded by strong winds.

The second is to use old farm tools.

Dry and windy climate and rapid evaporation of soil moisture are important reasons for wind erosion. Therefore, it is necessary to keep the water in the soil as much as possible during farming, that is, to keep the water in the deep soil and the surface soil from evaporating. The soil in newly reclaimed areas is mostly black or dark chestnut sand or sandy loam. The topsoil has large particles, loose soil and easy infiltration and evaporation of water. This situation has made the soil moisture inherently insufficient, but the former Soviet Union used old farming tools in the process of reclamation to make it worse. Old-fashioned farm tools dig deep into the land and plow and rake repeatedly, so that all the wet soil underground is turned to the surface. In this way, the soil loses moisture, becomes looser, and wind erosion becomes more and more serious.

It is said that in 1957, Kazakhstan Agricultural Research Institute developed a set of spring rough tillage methods suitable for wind erosion areas, using an armless plow to deeply loosen the soil, so as to better maintain the moisture in the soil. To this end, the government also generally prohibits the use of arm plows and millstones on newly reclaimed land and leisure land. However, the use of the armless plow has brought some new problems, especially the difficulty in operation, the inability to popularize it in a large area, and the long-term problem of soil and water conservation.

In addition, the shelterbelt was destroyed.

With the continuous expansion of newly reclaimed land, trees are cut down, turf is cleared, and the original vegetation coverage is less and less, resulting in more and more serious soil wind erosion. For example, the grassland in Custa has a vegetation coverage area of 90% before reclamation and less than 10% after reclamation, so the soil wind erosion here is very serious.

Preventing soil wind erosion mainly depends on virgin forests and artificial shelterbelts. However, after large-scale land reclamation, the forest area did not increase, but decreased. Please look at the following aspects:

Of the newly reclaimed 60,000 hectares of land in Kazakhstan, the forest area only accounts for 2%, which is 4.7 percentage points lower than that before reclamation.

The shelterbelt area of Rostov 1960 is only 5 14000 hectares, accounting for only 0.9% of the cultivated land area, and the distribution is extremely uneven, and there are almost no shelterbelts in many areas.

In the North Caucasus, people generally do not pay enough attention to the phenomenon of soil wind erosion, not only the afforestation scale is small, but also the phenomenon of deforestation is quite serious.

In this case, it is inevitable to be punished by nature.

The occurrence of black storm disasters in North America and the western part of the former Soviet Union has revealed a truth to the world: if human beings want to avoid retaliation from nature, they must act according to objective laws. In other words, human beings should consciously protect their living environment while demanding from nature, otherwise they will suffer the consequences.

May people always remember the lessons of reclamation in the United States and the Soviet Union!

Of course, human beings have also transformed themselves in the process of transforming nature. Human society is constantly making progress in the reflection on its own behavior. In this regard, although mankind has paid a heavy price, people have awakened from the constant disasters. Now, a global environmental protection problem has been widely recognized and put into practice by the international community.

In the struggle with nature, human beings must have a sense of hardship!

At the same time, in the struggle with nature, human beings must also remain optimistic!