Saline-alkali Land

Leaving Shu Ya's temporary laboratory.

Jiang Miao came to his own experimental greenhouse alone.

Meanwhile, Ke Yong and another bodyguard sat under a sun umbrella not far away. The two of them appeared very relaxed, but in reality, they were secretly and vigilantly observing their surroundings, especially the several intersections nearby that could approach the laboratory and experimental greenhouse.

Next to their sun umbrella were Li Wenna and another female bodyguard, who were with Shu Ya's group.

Li Wenna sat by the table, occasionally typing on her laptop keyboard, handling some work.

Although she was Shu Ya's secretary, she still had to help the farm with some matters, especially communication with the headquarters. Lu Weibin had entrusted these tasks to Li Wenna.

Jiang Miao checked on various crops in his exclusive experimental greenhouse.

Quite a few crops had already been planted inside.

Including Ginseng Fruit (Sweet Cucumber), Alfalfa, Soybean, Tomato, Cucumber, and Rice.

These greenhouses had a total cultivation area of 5 mu.

Among them, Tomato, Ginseng Fruit, Cucumber, and Soybean had already flowered and borne fruit.

Alfalfa was growing extremely lushly, and Rice was still heading.

Two mu of land had been transformed by him into artificial saline-alkali land, divided into 5 types of saline-alkali land, used to simulate mild saline-alkali land, moderate saline-alkali land, severe saline-alkali land, Marine Transgression Saline-alkali Land, and Inland Saline-alkali Land.

These saline-alkali experimental fields were filled with Alfalfa, Soybean, and Rice.

However, the growth conditions varied.

Although they were new varieties improved by Jiang Miao through the appraisal panel and breeding technology, the new varieties would also suffer from acclimatization issues.

It should be known that in order to screen out suitable new varieties, he had consumed a full 3 tons of non-GMO soybeans, and only from these 3 tons of genetically mutated soybean seeds did he select 37 valuable genetically mutated varieties.

The same was true for other Rice and Alfalfa.

If relying on traditional breeding methods, it would take at least three to five years to select useful varieties from 3 tons of genetically mutated seeds.

However, Jiang Miao could shorten this time to a few weeks.

Only those initially screened genetically mutated varieties were qualified to be used as varieties for planting experiments.

The Soybeans, Alfalfa, and Rice in these experimental fields before him were excellent varieties carefully selected from tens of thousands of mutations.

"Can DD24 not adapt to high potassium?" Jiang Miao recorded the situation of this variety in his notebook using symbols and words that only he could understand.

Walking past the experimental field of DD24 Soybean.

The next few soybean varieties did not perform satisfactorily.

Some soybeans could tolerate saline-alkali but not drought;

Some could tolerate drought but not diseases;

Some performed well in other aspects but had low yields.

Until he reached the experimental field marked DD28, Jiang Miao squatted down and looked at the edamame pods heavily laden with fruit under the branches: "The DD28 variety is quite good. It not only tolerates high-salinity seawater but is also resistant to pests and diseases, and its stems are relatively strong, showing good lodging resistance, and the yield is also quite good..."

He roughly estimated the yield of this soybean plant. If converted to mu yield, it could reach about 183 kilograms per mu.

This yield per mu is very high.

Because the management of this experimental field was very extensive, and a large amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides were not used, reaching this level of yield per mu is absolutely terrifying.

Of course, the soybean yield per mu in some areas of the country can also be very high.

For example, some soybean fields of the Western Regions Production and Construction Corps can reach a yield of about 230 kilograms per mu, but the premise for this yield is good field management, reasonable use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, plus good water conservancy, only then can this level be reached.

Similarly, the average yield per mu of genetically modified soybeans in the Mississippi River production area in America can also reach about 220 kilograms.

The problem is that genetically modified soybeans have issues with seed source safety, gene pollution, and safety sensitivity.

However, DD28, which Jiang Miao carefully selected, can be directly irrigated with seawater or the saltwater of inland lakes, and under extensive management, it can still reach a yield of 183 kilograms per mu. This is definitely a very promising variety.

It's just a pity that DD28's cold resistance is not very good and cannot withstand temperatures below 15 degrees Celsius.

Jiang Miao was not disappointed by this, because this is only the first generation variety. Next, further improvements can be made based on DD28, and even considering opening up new experimental fields in the coastal saline-alkali land of Bohai Bay.

However, he temporarily has no plans to go north.

On the one hand, he cannot be too hasty. He only conquered the artificial breeding technology of eels last year, and then cultivated several new strawberry varieties. If he were to produce such an excellent soybean variety again, it would easily attract attention.

On the other hand, naturally, Hai Lu Feng Company's financial foundation is not strong enough to invest on a large scale. If new varieties of soybeans are introduced at this time, ordinary growers may not buy them, which is not conducive to promotion.

After all, the new varieties developed by Jiang Miao are all biased towards salt-alkali tolerance. For ordinary farmland, there is not much difference between planting salt-alkali tolerant varieties and planting other varieties.

The alfalfa and rice he developed are all varieties that are biased towards salt-alkali tolerance and drought tolerance.

The reason for choosing salt-alkali tolerance and drought tolerance is that a large part of the land in the country is saline-alkali land.

The scale of saline-alkali land in the country has reached 99.13 million hectares, which is equivalent to 1.48695 billion mu, almost reaching the level of one mu of saline-alkali land per capita.

Among them, 150 million mu of saline-alkali land has the potential for transformation, which is also the direction of research for many agricultural research institutions in the country.

But easily transformable saline-alkali land is not Jiang Miao's goal. The saline-alkali land he is interested in is the remaining more than one billion mu of saline-alkali land that is difficult to transform, because salt-alkali tolerant and drought tolerant varieties can be directly planted on these saline-alkali lands without special soil improvement.

Even if one-third of the saline-alkali land can be planted, this is an extremely significant breakthrough.

The scale of soybeans imported from abroad by the country reached a peak of about 100 million tons.

As long as one-third of the saline-alkali land can be planted, the planting area can reach about 430 million mu. If all of it is planted with DD28, the yield per mu can reach 183 kilograms, and 430 million mu of saline-alkali land can produce 78.69 million tons of soybeans.

Coupled with the country's existing soybean production capacity, it can almost completely replace the imported share.

Of course, completely replacing imports is impossible.

After all, if the country completely stops importing, the global soybean market will inevitably collapse instantly. At that time, not only will American farmers suffer heavy losses, but farmers and agricultural companies in South American countries and Russia will also suffer.

What's more, without importing soybeans, it is difficult to reduce the trade deficit, which will make other countries less willing to purchase domestic industrial products, thus further leading the global economy towards isolation and trade protection.

Therefore, even if Jiang Miao introduces more excellent salt-alkali tolerant soybeans, the planting area is estimated not to exceed 100 million mu.

If it exceeds this area, it will inevitably require a reduction of more than 20 million tons of foreign soybean imports, which can only cut off the export quotas of some regions.

This impact will cause a serious chain reaction.

Originally, others could only make money by exporting agricultural products and minerals. Now, suddenly, another large commodity import of over 100 million tons per year is cut off. Without foreign exchange earnings, others naturally have no money to import industrial products.

Therefore, in this situation, the authorities will consider the overall situation of the global economy, and Jiang Miao's new variety of soybeans will only become a strategic reserve technology, and will not be fully promoted for planting unless absolutely necessary.

It's estimated that tens of millions of mu will be planted first, taking the opportunity to suppress the arrogance of the four major grain merchants, ABCD, and drive down the price of soybeans, then continue to maintain the scale of soybean imports.

There's no other way, the domestic industrial chain is too formidable, covering almost all types of industrial industries.

In this situation, it's necessary to ensure that industrial products have sufficient markets to absorb this capacity, so the scale of the trade deficit must be controlled to prevent other countries from becoming too poor.

Otherwise, with trade deficits of billions or tens of billions every year, and since they aren't America, which can print money with nuclear-powered printing presses, there will definitely be a day when they can't bear it.

Maintaining the scale of imports is a means of balancing the trade deficit.