Restoring fertility

Sheng misses the prairie days. The land around his house - a lonely structure in the wasteland - is devoid of life except for his suosuo plot. It's a green island in a yellow sea of sand.

"This isn't a local problem," Sheng says. "It's a national problem."

Actually, it's a global problem. Siberian winds propel Alxa's dust to sandblast not just Chinese cities like Beijing but even the western United States.

Suosuo is a remarkable solution, Sheng believes.

It not only has restored his land but also its congrong has increased his annual income from agriculture fivefold over the 3,000 yuan he earned raising sheep.

"My land is returning, and I earn more than we ever dreamed. Our family enjoys a better living standard than we ever expected."

Sheng sells his congrong to Mandela Co, which processes it into liquor in a partnership with Tianjin University, he says.

"This kind of farming brings more money than herding and is better work," Sheng says. "As a herder, I had to spend every waking moment lashed by icy winds. There was no choice. But suosuo doesn't require much care. I only have to tend my field four months a year."

Feasible fowl

Cries of mother earth

Paradise of birds

Sheng uses his spare time to make about 4,000 yuan a month as a driver.

Wu Lankou, an ethnic Mongolian who lives down the road from Sheng, also hopes to shift from sheep ranching to suosuo and congrong planting. But Wu doesn't have enough land to support his family, he says.

He has grown half a hectare of suosuo for six years but hasn't planted congrong.

The grassland upon which his 200 sheep grazed died in the mid-'90s. And his livestock will be outlawed next year.

"We have absolutely no clue how we'll survive," he says.

"But I support the government policy. This desert must be stopped. Either way, we'll lose our sheep - through their starvation or by law. At least with the policy, the grassland might be restored."

Wu had fed his 190 sheep with food purchased outside but can't afford to do so anymore, he says.

"We're broke," he says.

"And we have no idea how to make money without herding."

OISCA program officer Su Lide explains: "Our organization has tried dozens of ways to reverse the desertification and restore the grassland, with mixed results. Our suosuo project has been the most successful. It has the advantage of improving local incomes, which is likely why herders are eager to join."

Poultry producer Wulanbatu'er, an ethnic Mongolian who raises emus and tends 24 hectares of suosuo through OISCA's projects, believes such practices can control the crisis.

"Through such innovations, we can turn the desert back into grassland," he says. "And we'll live even better than we did before the desert came."

That's not to mention the sexual benefits men outside of Alxa reap from the project - almost certainly doing so with little inkling of the land from which their congrong comes or its people.

Contact the writer at erik_nilsson@chinadaily.com.cn.