New irrigation technique is successful in Xinjiang

An experiment in planting rice on dry farmland in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region that used dripping irrigation led to higher production than the traditional planting technique, and will be widely used in 2015, according to an executive with a water management company.

The per mu output of the 600-mu experiment reached nearly 840 kilograms, much higher than 500-kilograms output with the average production using traditional planting technique, said Chen Lin, vice-general manager of the Xinjiang Tianye Water-Saving Irrigation company.

Xinjiang is an arid area and water resources are unevenly distributed, which has greatly limited its development.

The company, located in Shihezi city, also the headquarters of the eighth division under the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), is the largest one dealing with the water-saving irrigation technologies in the corps and Xinjiang.

Dripping irrigation technology, first developed by Israel, uses pipelines in different diameters to transport water to plants instead of flood irrigation. The technique enables precise management of irrigation and fertilization.

Rice is the most difficult crop using the dripping irrigation technique among the more than 30 plants experimented with, including cotton, wheat, sugar cane and some fruits trees, said Chen, the head of the company's research team.

Traditionally, the rice is on flat land and needs a large amount of water. With the new technique, water usage can be reduced to about 700 cubic meters on one mu of land, less than one-third of the previous amount. Ridges can be leveled, increasing the planting area 5 to 7 percent, Chen added.

Disease and insect pests can be greatly reduced with no water flowing, a key to increasing output, said Chen. "The rice growing on dry land also reduces the discharge of methane, which is good for environment," he added.

Farmers can add fertilizers and pesticide solutions at pump stations, reducing the amount of residues on the plants and ground.

The new irrigation technique has been experimented with on 5,000-mu rice lands not only in Xinjiang's cities, but also in Heilongjiang, Ningxia and Jiangsu provinces. The next decade will be important in promoting the technique, according to the company's plan.

The cost of the facilities is about 400 yuan per mu, much lower than the imported ones, said Chen. "Taking rice as an example, accounting for the reduced cost on water, fertilizer and labor, the per-mu income can rise by 500 yuan ($81)," Chen said.

The company, listed in Hong Kong in 2006, now has 150 patents related to water-saving technologies. The dripping irrigation technique and facilities are widely used on 60 million mu lands in 29 Chinese provinces and 15 countries in central Asia and Africa, according to the company.

"We have set up nine demo bases in foreign countries and put forward dozens of technological regulations for them," Chen said. "We can export facilities and technologies, an unprecedented breakthrough for XPCC companies."

Along with the increasing production capacity, the company is seeking to develop a model that can produce ionic membrane caustic soda, polyvinyl chloride, calcium carbide and other chemicals, to achieve low discharge and pollution.

"The company has established an example of a new type of industrialization focusing on both environmental protection and industrial development," said Zhu Xinxiang, director of the development and reform committee of XPCC.