A comprehensive framework on land-water resources development in Mu Us Sandy Land

• Arsenic sandstone was proposed to improve sandy land agriculture for making up the shortage of sand.
• A comprehensive framework on land-water resources development was proposed including mix of the two, irrigation management and farming measures.
• Besides physical mix, chemical and biological processes were still required, before it would function as a “real” soil.
• Remarkable economic benefit, water use efficiency and social-ecological efficiency were achieved by using the framework.

Land and water resources are two basic factors for sustaining the development of agriculture. The two are scare resources with rapid social economic development gradually, especially in Mu Us Sandy Land (MUSL) with severe desertification. Arsenic sandstone is a special rock type of MUSL with strong water holding capacity, which appropriately makes up the shortage of sand on water and fertilizer losing. Based on it, a comprehensive framework on land-water resources development was proposed including engineering treatment measures, appropriate irrigation management and farming measures after a series of experiments designed for sandy land treated with arsenic sandstone. Results of the experiments showed that both water content and fertility increased after using a 1:2 arsenic sandstone/sand ratio by mixing both together. An area of 151.3 ha arable land was newly-increased by applying the framework in Dajihan village sandy land of the MUSL, which created direct economic efficiency of 14.1 million Yuan RMB by tomato planting, and obtained 61% of water saving effect compare to untreated sand. The application of the framework in Dajihan village also got huge social-ecological efficiency such as on soil and water conservation, sand-fixing and forming high quality farmland. The framework helped to completed the process from soil synthesize to agricultural production, then to real soil, which transformed the traditional sandy land treatment to sandy land development, and was proved to be practicable and sustainable in local sandy agriculture.