Sensational title.

On straw checkerboards laid across northwest China, a dark film spread over treated sand and stayed after seasonal dust storms. [...] In trials near the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang in northwest China, CAS teams saw crusts stabilize sand within 10 to 16 months.

So they treated the sand with a microbial sludge and it did not blow away.

Later in the article ...

Even in the best cases, that still meant waiting two to three years for a mature crust that resists disturbance.

It's great that people are researching techniques to increase arable land, but this article is pretty trashy.

The secret is Uyghurs labor