After nine years of effort, the Department of Natural Resources of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the Xi'an Center of the China Geological Survey have completed a soil geochemical survey covering nearly 210,000 square kilometers in southern Xinjiang. For the first time, they have comprehensively mapped out data on 54 elements and indicators in the soils of southern Xinjiang, discovering a “selenium belt” stretching over a thousand kilometers along the southern foothills of the Tian Shan Mountains.

Wang Weijiang, director of the Autonomous Region Geological Exploration and Management Center, introduced that this “selenium belt” stretches from the Yanqi Basin in the east, through the Aksu region, and extends westward to the Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture. It encompasses nearly 49 million mu of selenium-rich land, including 11.3 million mu of selenium-rich farmland, accounting for 27% of the total farmland area in southern Xinjiang.

The survey data, based on the abundance and deficiency levels of soil nutrients, identifies 908,100 mu of high-quality farmland and 2,102,700 mu of soil suitable for producing green foods. These areas are mainly located in regions such as the Yanqi Basin, the Kubai Basin, along the Aksu River, and western Kashgar.

Wang Weijiang said that a comprehensive survey of the “elemental composition” of soils in southern Xinjiang has laid a solid foundation for farmland protection, the construction of high-standard basic farmland, and the development of specialty agriculture and the healthy food industry. Ma Chengui, a villager from No. 9 Canal Village, Yongning Town, Yanqi Hui Autonomous County, Bayingol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, introduced that this year his family planted 130 mu of selenium-enriched wheat, with an expected yield of over 750 kilograms per mu. This survey has also produced the most systematic, highest spatial-resolution, and most comprehensive national-level geochemical soil mapping data ever compiled for southern Xinjiang.