Chapter 109: Inspection_1

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Jiang Yu and Jiang Shiliu took a car back to Beijing's airport, where they met up with the experts from the "Green Pasture Project" and then all flew together to the south.

Jiang Yu was a bit perplexed, "Aren't we supposed to be looking at the current state of desert agriculture? Why are we heading to the south first?"

An expert named Qi Guanglu explained, "After discussing it over the past few days, we feel that only two projects meet your requirements, one of which requires a comparison between the land in the south and desertified land.

"So we need to go and see the species that were initially cultivated in the south first."

Jiang Yu nodded, understanding Qi Guanglu's intention—this was a crash course for him, an outsider.

When they arrived in Guangdong, Jiang Yu was still somewhat astonished to see neatly grown forage grass over seven meters tall.

At seven meters, equal to the height of a three-story building, Jiang Yu had to tilt his head back to see the top of the grass.

Qi Guanglu explained, "This is the Giant Fungi Grass, which we introduced from Africa in the 1980s.

"After years of cultivation, African countries are now reintroducing it from us."

While Jiang Yu had seen tall grass before, it was still spectacular to see such neatly arranged grass, standing almost as tall as the surrounding trees.

Qi Guanglu continued, "The name Giant Fungi Grass was given by my teacher, who planted this grass all across our motherland—from the far south to the far north!

"Take this pasture base for example, due to suitable climate, adequate fertilizer, and water, the Giant Fungi Grass can be harvested every three to four weeks."

That brought Jiang Yu back to reality, "This grass can be grown in the desert?"

"Yes," Qi Guanglu said, "Because it grows very tall, it also has the effects of preventing and stabilizing sand.

"Giant Fungi Grass is now planted in places like Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and there are new varieties that can be cultivated on saline-alkaline soil that also fix nitrogen, which can improve the fertility of the land.

"Bringing you here is to let you experience the impact of climate on vegetation.

"Please walk up onto the ridge and feel the excellent growing environment created by the rainfall in the south."

Jiang Yu nodded and walked on the ridges with Jiang Shiliu, looking up at the sliver of sky overhead, "Have you ever seen grass this tall and neatly grown?"

Jiang Shiliu replied, "Never."

"Today, I've realized I don't understand agriculture at all!" Jiang Yu exclaimed sentimentally, "It's just the right time to educate myself during this inspection tour."

After roaming around the pasture for an hour or two, Jiang Yu and the others immediately took a flight to the Kashgar region of Xinjiang.

Early the next morning, Qi Guanglu took Jiang Yu to the local Giant Fungi Grass plantation.

From a distance, they saw patches of "Giant Fungi Grass" flourishing in the sandy soil, but it was much shorter than the "Giant Fungi Grass" in Guangdong.

Qi Guanglu explained while standing nearby, "This 'Sandland Giant Fungi Grass' covers nearly five hundred acres and has greatly transformed the local ecosystem.

"Here the Giant Fungi Grass only grows to about two to two and a half meters, but in northern areas, that's already considered very tall for forage.

"You see over there, that's a saltwater lake. Most crops have a hard time growing near the lake, or can't be irrigated with water from the lake.

"However, this variety of Giant Fungi Grass was designed for such environments, and because there's a water source for irrigation, it can grow this tall.

"Still, due to limited water resources, the grass here can only be harvested twice a year at most."

Jiang Yu looked at the Giant Fungi Grass swaying in the wind around him and felt the heat of the desert dissipating significantly.

He asked further, "What would happen if the Giant Fungi Grass were planted in a desert area with difficult water access?"

After taking a deep breath, Qi Guanglu replied, "You'll see it tomorrow."

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So, after half a day's travel, the group arrived at a Gobi desert area.

A gust of wind blew, stirring up yellow sand, and if one was not careful, they would end up swallowing a mouthful of it.

On the other side of a sand dune, rows of grass with a greenish-yellow hue, almost the color of the sand, were planted.

They were only about knee-high, and if not for some of the leaves being green, Jiang Yu would have thought they were already dead.

Through the leaves of these grasses, Jiang Yu could discern that these too were the giant fungus grass.

Compared to the giant fungus grass in Guangdong, the ones here were like something out of Lilliput.

Qi Guanglu said, "It's very inconvenient to get water here, and even though the roots can penetrate several meters underground, this special variety of giant fungus grass still looks so bleak.

"If we were to divert water from elsewhere for irrigation, the cost would be too high and the benefits too little, so we only have this experimental field and simply can't scale up."

Qi Guanglu paused, then continued, "The desert is a dead zone for life precisely because it severely lacks water, unsuitable for the growth of any vegetation."

Jiang Yu squatted next to the stunted "giant fungus grass" for a long time in silence, lamenting that indeed, one profession is very different from another—he had previously realized he had oversimplified the idea of desert agriculture.

Not just oversimplified, it was downright naive!

Even the resilient grass looked so listless, let alone crops.

After a brief spell of disappointment, Jiang Yu buoyed his spirits again, reasoning that if his goal had been so easy to achieve, he wouldn't have needed the help of the Wallfacer.

He quickly controlled his feeling of dejection, took a walk around the area, and then followed the experts to another desert experimental field in Inner Mongolia for investigation.

When they reached the experimental field a day later, from a great distance, Jiang Yu could see the field was composed of regular, lush green circles.

Explaining to Jiang Yu was another expert named Zhang Yang.

He pointed to the circles on the ground and explained, "In the sand here, we've mixed in a special binder.

"This binder can cause the sand to stick together like soil, effectively retaining moisture.

"Especially in the desert, irrigation is the biggest cost; this invention can significantly reduce the irrigation costs of desert crops."

Upon arriving at the experimental field, Jiang Yu discovered that wheat was being grown, with the wheat heads only two-thirds the size of those in his hometown, and not very plump either.

However, there was already a combine harvester reaping in the distance.

Jiang Yu asked, "The wheat heads are still green, aren't they being harvested a bit early?"

Zhang Yang explained, "Here, the daylight hours are long. If we wait for the wheat heads to turn yellow before harvesting, it would be too late, and a lot of grains would fall to the ground."

Jiang Yu nodded, looking at the expansive circular wheat fields, thinking that this might well be a novel approach.

He asked Zhang Yang, "Is that binder expensive?"

"It's not yet mass-produced and is indeed not cheap," Zhang Yang replied. "Even if it were mass-produced, the cost of growing wheat here would still be three to four times higher than on regular land.

"And the yield is still less than two-thirds of normal land, which is far from cost-effective.

"Therefore, this project is still in the experimental stage and is a considerable distance from widespread adoption."

Jiang Yu looked at the verdant wheat fields, seemingly feeling the tenacity of life.

Gradually, he began to form some ideas in his mind.