"We have tried it repeatedly," Tang said.

"Using mechanized equipment to make brush net rope straw checkerboard sand barriers, workers no longer have to carry the straw on their shoulders and shovel them into the sand to make the checkerboards," Tang said.

"This not only reduces labor intensity and improves the speed of sand control operation, but also greatly reduces production costs. Previously, two workers would make up to 3.6 mu (0.24 hectare) of straw checkerboards a day, but now with the new technology, two people can make up to six," he said.

According to Tang, the new checkerboard sand barrier technology has been applied and demonstrated in forestry farms in Zhongwei city, and has obtained two national invention patents.

Scientific and technological personnel said the new technology has the advantages of simple construction but high efficiency and production cost reduction when compared with traditional methods, and therefore it is regarded as new technical breakthrough in combating desertification in the country, Tang added.

China's desertified area is more than 1.72 million square kilometers, with 300,000 square kilometers not kept under control effectively.

And at the current treatment rate of 1,980 square kilometers a year, it will still take 152 years to complete treatment of all desertified land areas, far from meeting the goal of building a beautiful China by 2035.

Therefore, insiders said it is urgent to develop a series of new and efficient sand control measures to improve the speed and quality of combating desertification in the country.