Development of dryland China from historical view: a case of development of the natural oasis and its desertification over the last 2000 years in Minqin basin
Prof Dr. Fa-Hu Chen and Dr. Yao-Wen Xie
Center for Arid Environment and Paleoclimate Research (CAEP), Key Laboratory of West China's Environmental System (Ministry of Education), Lanzhou University, China,730000;
Most natural oases in the western China’s dryland have been changed to irrigated farmland over the 2000 years when Han Chinese brought advanced agriculture techniques into dryland China. Consequently, dryland has been overused and consequently desertified. The Minqin Oasis in arid China is a very good example. The oasis desertification over the last 2000 years is very typical in the arid China. Minqin Oasis is located along the ancient silk-road in the east part of Hexi Corridor and low reaches of the Shiyang River. It was a pastoral land before Han Chinese immigrated into the area. By the time of the West Han Empire, Minqin Oasis became Chinese territory after series wars and agriculture was introduced. As a result, the pastoral area changed into agricultural farmland gradually. With the acceleration of exploitation under increasing population pressure, land degradation has gradually taken place. The productive land that was once suitable for plant and fish culture became a scene of desert sea with “no irrigation, no farm”.
This study focuses on understanding the oasis desertification process over the last 2000 years, using multi-methods such as historical document, archaeology, remote sensing and geographic information system. The result shows that the human activities in Minqin Basin can be dated back to the Shajing Culture, a Neolithic culture at around 2600 years ago. Since the area became part of the territory of Han Dynasty at BC 210, the natural oases gradually changed into farmland. In Han Dynasty, the area of farmland reached up to about 14,800 ha, and during the Wei-Jin Dynasties it reached to 27,830ha. Thereafter, farmland area deceased during the period of 800 years from the South-North Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty, when grassland people invaded the area. The second intensified development of Minqin oasis began in Ming Dynasty when central government of the Ming Dynasty encouraged poor farmers in east China to develop the oasis. The area of farmland in the oasis reached 26,579ha followed by another intensive development period in Qing Dynasty with the total farmland area of 75,847ha, the highest during the history. It is found that a intensive development period of the dryland during history was always followed by a strong desertification period afterward. When a new dynasty established, a wave of developments of natural oasis into farmland oasis began, and the developed farmland in the oasis was subject to desertification in the late dynasty leading to abandoning of village and towns by the inhabitants that relied on farmland.
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© International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), 2006
