Chapter 360 - 174: Eve (Middle)

Chapter 360: Chapter 174: Eve (Middle)

Academician Li’s heart was also pounding. He quickly urged, "Manager Liu, please advise General Manager Jiang not to reclaim the desert on too large a scale just yet. I’m heading to the Capital City at once. This matter has become extraordinarily significant."

"Indeed." Manager Liang agreed that this matter was of immense importance.

Liu Zhiben smiled and shook his head. "Don’t worry! Our company’s engineering teams can only reclaim about 70,000 mu of desert per month right now. Even on relatively flat, sandy land, we can only manage about 100,000 mu a month. That’s just over a million mu a year. For now, it’s nothing to worry about."

He was so calm because he knew that if the sky were to fall, a tall man like Jiang Miao would be there to hold it up. Besides, adding just over a million mu of desert soybean fields or pastures per year wouldn’t have as big of an impact on the global soybean market as one might think.

United Mining Company had already secured the rights to the relatively easy-to-develop desert areas in the Monan Region. This was to prevent other capital from flooding into the market uncontrollably.

As long as United Mining Company held the contracting rights to these deserts, other companies wouldn’t be able to use Immortal Soybeans to transform vast tracts of desert and sandy land into farmland.

Of course, Jiang Miao had already anticipated the government’s next move.

The stage was set.

The powers that be would catch on soon enough.

「That evening.」

After a high-speed train ride that lasted several hours, Academician Li, Manager Liang, and three others finally arrived in the Capital City at around eight in the evening.

「Inside a conference room.」

Holding the Phase Two research report on the Immortal Bean series that he had obtained from Liu Zhiben, Academician Li began his grave presentation. "...In summary, the Immortal Bean series of soybean varieties developed by Hailufeng Company possesses five key advantages, which are as follows..."

"First is the impact of its drought resistance. This means the variety can be widely planted in the vast deserts of Monan and the Northwest. Disregarding ecological impacts for a moment, the nation’s available arable land or grassland could increase by one billion mu."

GASP! Everyone present, no matter how composed, couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath.

"Second is its saline-alkali tolerance. Immortal Bean No. 1 is resistant to moderate and high levels of soil salinity and alkalinity. This variety could turn the nation’s 520 million mu of saline-alkali land into usable farmland and pastures."

Even accounting for some overlap between desert areas and saline-alkali lands, this still meant a total potential increase of at least 1.2 to 1.3 billion mu.

"Third is a characteristic common to the entire Immortal Bean series. After accumulating sufficient nutrients and water, its root system can create a 10-centimeter-thick layer of nutrient-rich soil in sandy land approximately every five years. In other soil types like clay, red earth, black earth, or loess, it can form a 5-to-8-centimeter-thick layer of nutrient-rich soil in the same timeframe."

"Fourth, the Immortal Bean series can be intercropped with certain other plants. Through the Immortal Soybeans’ water retention and collection properties, other crops like corn can grow symbiotically alongside them. However, corn can only be planted in areas with relatively sufficient rainfall."

"Fifth, when the high-protein Immortal Bean No. 3 is used as forage, its protein value and other nutritional components are roughly equivalent to high-quality imported Purple Alfalfa. This will be a great boon to the development of the domestic livestock industry."

One of the elderly men adjusted his glasses and asked cautiously, "Can this data be confirmed?"

Academician Li quickly replied, "Much of it has been confirmed. Hailufeng Company has reclaimed 350,000 mu of the Tamin Chagan Desert within the Kerchin Desert. Of that, 220,000 mu were leveled with simple engineering and are being used as soybean fields. For the other 150,000 mu, where the sand dunes were too large and uneven, they simply compacted the sand, laid down straw checkerboards, and directly planted the Immortal Soybean root tubers."

After taking a short breath, Academician Li continued, "Manager Liang and I, along with others, conducted on-site sample surveys in those 220,000 mu of soybean fields. We estimate the yield per mu to be between 300 and 320 kilograms, which classifies them as ultra-high-yield soybeans."

"Yes, and here are the samples..." Manager Liang, whose hands were trembling slightly under the immense pressure, quickly took a woven plastic sack from a nearby security officer and pulled out a dozen or so soybean plants one by one.

Everyone present received one plant.

Academician Li then explained to the group in layman’s terms how to estimate the soybean yield per mu:

"Everyone, please observe the pods on these soybean plants. Each stalk has 24 to 30 pods, and each pod generally contains three soybeans, with a few containing two. This means each plant yields 60 to 64 soybeans. In other words, one seed produces 60 to 64 soybeans. Based on a sowing rate of 5 kilograms of seeds per mu, the yield comes out to be around 300 to 320 kilograms per mu."

One of the sharp-eyed old men spoke up. "Academician Li, if I heard you correctly, these Immortal Soybeans can overwinter and are perennial. Does that mean they can be harvested twice a year, even in Monan?"

Academician Li nodded. "Theoretically, yes. However, this trait has so far only been achieved in the simulated experimental fields of Hailufeng Company’s smart greenhouses. Whether they can safely survive the winter in Monan’s natural environment will depend on how they sprout next spring."

Even so, everyone was already immensely satisfied with the Immortal Soybeans.

An old man with slicked-back hair contemplated for a moment before opening his eyes and speaking slowly, "I hear that United Mining Company, the joint venture between Hailufeng Company and the Monan State-owned Assets Operation Company, has contracted for over a hundred million mu of desert. It seems Jiang Miao is very confident!"

"Should we approve large-scale planting?"

"We’ll definitely have to approve it, but we can’t just blindly expand the scale of cultivation."