02/06/06

One man and a vegetable against the spreading sands

Few plants can survive in the Gobi desert, Inner Mongolia Copyright: Wikipedia

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>One man and a vegetable against the spreading sands</h1>
<h4></h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P>Jiang Jiyu has spent nearly a decade studying how a vegetable, the Jerusalem artichoke, could help stop the spread of deserts in Inner Mongolia, China.</P><br />
<P>This China Daily article describes the 65-year-old’s efforts to grow the plants, which can tolerate sandy conditions and have edible tuberous roots.</P><br />
<P>The former farmer tested how the plants grow under different conditions before planting them over 80 hectares of land in Inner Mongolia in 1999. A drought killed the area’s wild plants but, in a triumph hailed by the media, the Jerusalem artichokes survived.</P><br />
<P>With help from students Jiyu planted seedlings on a further 200 hectares, and started investigating ways of processing the nutritious roots as a food product.</P><br />
<P>But an outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) cut off discussions with an interested businessman, and Jiyu had no means to guarantee an interest-free loan of US$625,000 offered by the State Forestry Administration.</P><br />
<P>Undaunted, Jiyu is still committed to promoting Jerusalem artichokes as a weapon against the spreading sands. He has donated more than 200 tonnes of the plants for cultivation in China’s Hebei and Liaoning provinces over the past few years. </P><br />
<P><a  href="http://english.people.com.cn/200605/17/eng20060517_266384.html" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full article in China Daily</A></P></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/features/one-man-and-a-vegetable-against-the-spreading-sand/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/features/one-man-and-a-vegetable-against-the-spreading-sand/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

Jiang Jiyu has spent nearly a decade studying how a vegetable, the Jerusalem artichoke, could help stop the spread of deserts in Inner Mongolia, China.

This China Daily article describes the 65-year-old’s efforts to grow the plants, which can tolerate sandy conditions and have edible tuberous roots.

The former farmer tested how the plants grow under different conditions before planting them over 80 hectares of land in Inner Mongolia in 1999. A drought killed the area’s wild plants but, in a triumph hailed by the media, the Jerusalem artichokes survived.

With help from students Jiyu planted seedlings on a further 200 hectares, and started investigating ways of processing the nutritious roots as a food product.

But an outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) cut off discussions with an interested businessman, and Jiyu had no means to guarantee an interest-free loan of US$625,000 offered by the State Forestry Administration.

Undaunted, Jiyu is still committed to promoting Jerusalem artichokes as a weapon against the spreading sands. He has donated more than 200 tonnes of the plants for cultivation in China’s Hebei and Liaoning provinces over the past few years.

Link to full article in China Daily