COFCO Joycome Foods Limited (COFCO Joycome), a meat business platform under COFCO Corporation, has established a crop-livestock circular model, which blazes a trail for transforming saline-alkali wastelands into eco-friendly farmland.
Through innovative engineering, livestock manure is converted into resourceful biogas slurry for soil improvement on saline-alkali lands. Additionally, the by-product biogas serves dual purposes by providing heat and power generation, achieving energy utilization from waste.
In 2024, biogas stations constructed by COFCO Joycome produced approximately 25 million cubic meters of biogas, with a 30 percent year-on-year increase in comprehensive utilization, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 40,000 tons.
Such circular model not only addresses the environmental disposal challenges of livestock manure but also gradually transforms once unusable saline-alkali wastelands into fertile farmlands.
China possesses around 100 million hectares of saline-alkali lands, representing 10 percent of the world’s total. Among them, approximately 33 million hectares have potential for agricultural development. Saline-alkali land improvement has long been a challenge in the agricultural sector.
In the saline-alkali regions of western part of Northeast China’s Jilin Province, COFCO Joycome collaborates with Jilin Agricultural University to conduct land improvement experiments using biogas slurry, yielding significant results.
After years of applying biogas slurry and sludge, the soil nutrient status in the project area significantly improved, with a 20 percent increase in total nitrogen content, 25 percent increase in total phosphorus content, and a 10 percent increase in total potassium content, enhancing soil organic matter and fertility.
Previously barren saline-alkali lands that could not support crops now have conditions for high-yield cultivation. Crops such as rice, peanuts, and corn planted on the improved land have all seen increased yields.
In the Sanshihao Township of Changling County, the saline-alkali land at Xianghe Family Farm, after years of biogas slurry improvement, witnessed a substantial increase in rice seedling survival rate and yield.
In 2023, the land produced nearly 500,000 kilograms of rice, resulting in an annual income increase of nearly 400,000 yuan ($55,000) for the farm. After implementing biogas slurry incorporation in over 133 hectares of corn fields at the Tiejun Agricultural Machinery Cooperative in Daxing Township, Changling County, the yield increased by 50 percent, leading to an annual income increase of about 450,000 yuan.
These vivid examples demonstrate that through the crop-livestock circular model, saline-alkali lands can indeed be transformed into high-yield fields.
The circular model developed by COFCO Joycome has not only excelled in saline-alkali land improvement but has also played a unique role in desert control.
In the sandified lands of Chifeng City in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, where drought and poor soil quality hindered large-scale plantation of crops, the introduction of biogas slurry mixed with deep-treated livestock wastewater by COFCO Joycome, along with precise irrigation and fertilization during the alfalfa growth period, overcame the technical bottlenecks in afforestation and greening sandy areas.
This project was recognized by the China Association of Environmental Protection Industry as a demonstration project for environmental protection.
Alfalfa, a leguminous plant with developed roots, possesses ecological value in nitrogen fixation and soil improvement. Leveraging the established biogas station projects, COFCO Joycome has carried out a pilot program for alfalfa cultivation in Chifeng since 2022, continuously optimizing planting methods using biogas slurry for irrigation.
The company also collaborates with local alfalfa growers, laying down underground pipelines to precisely transport biogas slurry to the fields and cultivating alfalfa on 1,333 hectares.
The once sand-covered desert now shows a thriving green landscape, with vegetation such as alfalfa effectively curbing sand erosion. The population of birds, lizards, snakes in the area, as well as the scale of other flora and fauna have significantly increased, effectively restoring the structure and function of the local ecosystem.
After years of practice, COFCO Joycome's crop-livestock circular model is becoming increasingly mature, demonstrating scalable effects across the country. Currently, the company has built over 40 biogas stations and deep treatment facilities for livestock wastewater, laid down 310 kilometers of pipelines for biogas slurry incorporation. It can process approximately 10 million cubic meters of manure annually, achieving the recycling of waste.
(Executive editor: Yuan Ting)
