Chapter 1156: Response from the Other Side of the Ocean

After the overall plan is finalized, all that remains are some technical details.

For example, the ratio of the two raw materials, polyacrylamide and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, the selection of auxiliary salt solution, and the detailed steps of the entire soil solidification process.

In fact, under normal circumstances, such high-level meetings will not discuss overly specific operational issues.

After all, if you pay too much attention to every detail, the value of the hierarchical leadership system will be lost.

But this time the incident happened suddenly, and many resources were allocated directly by the ministry or bureau level.

Therefore, it was inevitable that Chang Haonan and Zhuang Bingchang would lead a round of checks to fill in the gaps to ensure that the preparations before construction were foolproof.

However, the two of them had already reported the situation in detail during their last meeting, and those who hold high positions are all meticulous people.

Didn't find any errors.

The only pity is that there are currently no high-yield crops suitable for planting in modified sandy land. We can only spend a few years to improve the land conditions before we can plant the same varieties as the black soil in Northeast China.

This is also within the acceptable range of everyone.

After all, being able to turn the unusable and increasingly degraded sand into farmland is already a pleasant surprise.

What could be a more excessive request?

However, just after Zhuang Bingchang finished speaking, a leader from the Agricultural Science Research Institute suddenly spoke up:

"Academician Chang, Professor Zhuang, regarding crop breeding issues, I can help contact Academician Xin Zhiwen, the founder of plant molecular biology in China."

"In 98, Academician Xin took the initiative to coordinate the cooperation between Yenching University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong to build a joint plant genetic engineering laboratory, which included functional genomics research on rice and soybeans. Later, he cooperated with Academician Yuan, who is more familiar to us, to conduct research on lodging-resistant and disease-resistant rice, and the results were quite good..."

After saying this, perhaps out of fear of being misunderstood, he added:

"In the research of Academician Xin and Academician Yuan, molecular genetic technology is only an auxiliary means. It is not the same technology as the genetic modification we usually hear about..."

Chang Haonan knew almost nothing about the field of biotechnology, so he did not express any opinion and just signaled Zhuang Bingchang to make his own decision.

This proposal is equivalent to directly raising the latter's status by several levels.

I readily agreed.

"So……"

After confirming that no one had any further questions, the elder sitting in the first seat closed the notebook in front of him and scanned every face in front of him calmly and warmly:

"For the entire high-standard farmland construction project, the state will set up a special working group, and I will be personally responsible for the pilot phase... If you have any difficulties or needs in your work, you can bypass the middle level and contact me directly to solve them."

"Next, let me assign the tasks..."

"..."

……

Under the direct intervention of the highest decision-making level, the entire state machinery began to operate efficiently and precisely.

Soybeans are afraid of cold weather and have a long growth cycle, so it is definitely too late to plant another round this year.

But September and October happen to be a good time to sow grass seeds, especially the selected varieties such as Elymus dactylis, Naked Oats, and Tibetan Artemisia, which are native to the plateau areas and are cold-resistant and drought-resistant.

If you act quickly enough, you can enter the growth stage or even the mature stage before the cold winter comes.

These weeds are not planted for harvest, but simply to use their roots to strengthen the soil, so it doesn't matter even if it snows early.

For a time, the entire area south of the Greater Khingan Range in central Inner Mongolia was filled with bustling scenes.

Trains and trucks bring bags of raw materials from all over the country to the newly built mixing and stirring area, where they are then mixed with ferrous chloride and water in a mass ratio of 0.25:0.045:0.03:25 to form an emulsion suspension, which is then mixed with sand to form solidified sand.

The tractor pulled the rotary tiller and ridger to treat the originally bare and dry sand land according to the standards of farmland, and then filled the deep pits and shallow trenches with solidified sand and additional solidifying liquid, and finally sowed grass seeds...

In short, if the land under their feet was not yellow instead of black, it would look like autumn plowing after the harvest...

On a ridge of a field, two agricultural technicians in coarse cotton coats put their arms together, staring at the curing agent being mixed with sand and soil in front of them.

Perhaps because the work was too monotonous, the two of them still had plenty of free time to chat and joke.

Naturally, the conversation soon turned to the somewhat strange-sounding task at hand:

"I say, Lao Li, why don't we fill this... lump of stuff in, and then we can grow crops on this yellow sandy land next year?"

One of them wrinkled his nose and asked hesitantly.

As an old technician from the western reclamation area of ​​​​Mongolia Province, he has been fighting desertification for almost half his life and considers himself to be a veteran in desert control.

However, the commonly used method in the past was to use grass grids and sand-fixing nets to form a windbreak wall to prevent sand accumulation, and then gradually plant a small amount of shrubs and grass seeds after the sand in the middle of the grids had effectively formed a crust.

It is indeed useful, but it usually takes 5-7 years to form soil with average fertility, and its efficiency is relatively average.

Operations like the one currently being conducted directly on the sand itself were absolutely unheard of before.

The man standing opposite him was called "Old Li", but in fact he was younger. He smacked his lips while moving the water collecting funnel to the next pit.

"I guess... since the higher-ups are making such a big fuss, there must be something going on..."

The two of them kept talking to each other, but their hands did not stop moving.

Only after he had finished working on an entire ridge did he straighten up, supporting his aching back and planning to take a break.

"But this is so different from what we did in the past. If it had been a few decades ago..."

The technician who spoke first took out a pack of cigarettes and prepared to talk about his early experiences.

But at this moment, a voice suddenly came from behind them:

"From your accents, you should be from the western region. That region is arid desertification, so we must first use engineering measures such as grass grids to retain water and increase fertilizer. But the eastern region is semi-arid and semi-humid desertification, so we can directly use chemical and biological measures to fix the sand."

"The two raw materials you just filled in have long-chain hydrophobic main chains and surface-active hydrophilic side chains, so they can wrap and cross-link with the surface of soil particles, playing a role in strengthening the soil..."

The two turned around and found a young man who was estimated to be in his thirties.

He was wearing a brown jacket that was covered in mud, but judging from his clean hands, he did not look like someone who had been doing rough labor for a long time.

Following behind was another man who looked quite strong.

A few seconds later, the two realized that the sentence just now was an answer to the question they had accidentally talked about.

Obviously, the other party had been following for some time.

There is no doubt that this person is Chang Haonan who came to inspect the project.

According to the previously agreed division of labor, he only needs to provide technical support and does not undertake any front-line tasks.

But after all, he is the project leader who has received funding, and it is impossible for him to not show up at the beginning of the construction.

It's also a chance to give myself a break after being busy for half a year.

However, given Chang Haonan's personality, he definitely cannot afford to be idle.

That's why I walked around the area to see if there were any problems that I hadn't noticed before.

When I explained the principle of chemical sand fixation to the two of them, I didn't really want them to understand. I just took it as an opportunity to continue the conversation and get closer to them.

But before he could ask what happened next, Zhuang Bingchang came running towards him from a distance.

"often--"

I was about to shout out the name, but suddenly I saw someone else nearby, so I quickly stopped and walked closer before lowering my voice:

"Academician Chang, Director Luan from the National Space Administration has brought an expedition team here. They said they will be here soon. What do you think..."

Luan Wenjie's appearance here was really beyond Chang Haonan's expectations.

After all, the business that the other party is in charge of has nothing to do with the yellow earth in front of us.

But after all, he is a colleague in the same system. Since we have met, I have to receive him.

"Let's go, take me there and have a look..."

The two technicians looked at each other's back as they suddenly left, but they were still in a daze.

It was not until the burning cigarette burned one of the men's fingers that he suddenly retracted his arm and his mind started working again:

"This person looks young, but I feel like he has a prominent background..."

"really."

Another person followed suit and threw away the cigarette butt that was left:

"I would estimate that he is at least a farm manager!"

……

This wave of land reclamation in the eastern part of Meng Province is very large, directly involving tens of thousands of people and thousands of equipment, and it is impossible to escape the eyes of other countries.

In other words, I wasn't planning to hide it.

On the contrary, it was promoted in a very high-profile manner from the very beginning.

"Don't be afraid of barren land, hope will rise, and we will create another Great Northern Wilderness."

From the very beginning, Huaxia pointed out that it would build a new reclamation area throughout the Inner Mongolia Province with an output comparable to that of Beidahuang Group, and planned the entire area of ​​the first phase of the pilot project as a soybean planting area.

The purpose is very clear, which is to counter the current rising price trend of futures in the international market.

But for the United States, which hopes to use this to control the Chinese market, this is obviously not good news.

Later in the day.

14 SW 201th Street, Washington, DC

Agriculture Minister Ann Veneman looked at a newspaper from China in front of her with a gloomy expression.

Of course, as an American, she certainly couldn't understand Chinese.

Therefore, the assistant minister Sergei Edmond, who was sitting opposite, was holding a report to introduce the situation:

"According to public reports from China, they plan to build at least 10 million acres of high-standard farmland within 700 years. The early pilot projects have already started. According to satellite reconnaissance results, the area involved is no less than 40 acres..."

"Strange...Hasn't China been implementing a policy of restoring farmland to forests, grasslands, and lakes in recent years?"

Minister Veneman looked as if he had seen a ghost:

“Where did they get all that land?”

At the beginning of the 21st century, China's total annual soybean imports were about 1000 million tons.

About 60% of them come from North and South America.

With such a base, if the annual output in its home country suddenly increases by millions of tons, it will indeed have a significant impact on the market balance.

You know, the futures market is all about emotions.

If we allow the other party to calm down their panic, then there is a real chance that we can get through this crisis safely.

By then, speculators who took the opportunity to go long would not only lose all their money, but at least lose their pants.

“The report didn’t say that.”

Edmund replied:

"But judging from their propaganda slogans, it seems that they are reclaiming the degraded grasslands..."

Hearing this, Veneman frowned slightly:

"This matter must be thoroughly investigated..."

“Even if we cannot interfere with their reclamation operations, we must find a way to make the market believe that these farmlands will not be able to effectively produce any crops for at least a few years!”