After coming out of the reservoir construction site, Liang and Mi, who were sitting on the electric wheel, looked not very good. If the water conservancy project progresses slowly, it will have a great impact on downstream agriculture.

"It seems that we can only intensify the renovation of drainage and irrigation canals." Mi Shuo said thoughtfully.

"There is an upper limit. We can't dig agricultural canals into rivers." Liang Letian sighed: "In the end, they are just capillaries. If the arteries upstream cannot be repaired, the downstream will suffer no matter what, but the degree is different."

Mi Shuo thought about it and said: "Vigorously expand potato and sweet potato fields."

"Oh, this is the only way. Let's survive for two years." Liang Letian said helplessly.

Since the reservoir cannot be maintained, the heavy rains and flash floods in July every year are a hurdle that cannot be avoided. Under this situation, increasing the planting area of ​​root crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes has become the only option in agriculture.

This principle is easy to understand: potatoes and sweet potatoes hiding underground are much more resistant to flash floods, heavy rains, and Pacific storms than delicate crops like rice.

However, this strategy is not difficult to implement, because the original staple crops in Tainan were potatoes and sweet potatoes, but now we just continue to increase the proportion of planting.

You must know that with the current technical conditions that lack fertilizer and medicine, the yield of rice per mu is only five to six hundred kilograms, while the yield of one mu of potato fields can easily reach three times that of rice, and it can be even higher in the future.

Since potatoes are all starch, people across the world will naturally choose potatoes that can feed more people.

After confirming their future planting plan, the two returned to Chikan, and then headed south along the asphalt road along the seaside. After running for almost 10 kilometers, they reached the dividing line between Kaohsiung and Chikan: Erren.

Near the creek.

Since the residential area has not yet been expanded to this area, it is very desolate, surrounded by black land after burning. After running two miles eastward from the sea along the Erren River, a building appeared in the distance.

This is the core asset of the Grain Corporation: the base of improved seeds.

The improved seed base covers a large area and is composed of a biological laboratory, a greenhouse, an experimental field, a boiler room, and a power generation room.

The biological laboratory is the core building of the breeding base.

At first glance, the laboratory surrounded by four two-story brick-concrete buildings looks no different from the small buildings of later generations. It has large glass windows, iron railings, and white walls.

The equipment inside the laboratory building was also tried to be as consistent as possible with later generations.

Various imported biochemical instruments, including microscopes, are fully equipped here. In addition, there are some "domestic" low-level experimental equipment in the building, including a constant-temperature culture room.

After showing the purple leather certificate representing the identity of the nobles at the gate, the tricycle drove into the base compound.

Yang Le happily came out after hearing the news.

Yang Lele is relatively young among the Chuanzhong group. He is only 25 years old this year. He majored in bacteriology at university. After graduation, he threw his major aside and went to a trading company to become a "business manager" specializing in Zambia.

.

Originally, he thought that life would continue like this, but who would have thought that after time travel, he would actually pick up the major he had thrown away? Yes, the "country and people" need his major.

Seeing a group of people in white coats coming out of the building, Liang Letian and Mi Shuo immediately put smiles on their faces, pretending to be leaders inspecting, and enthusiastically stepped forward to hold Yang Lele's hand and shook it vigorously.

: "I'm glad. Thank you for your hard work. There is a serow in the car. We two brothers specially called you to make casserole for you!"

"Thank you!" Yang Le's round face was now full of smiles: "I have beef here, let's have a good meal tonight." [...ABC Novel Network @...Novel is better and updated faster]

While talking, a group of people entered the building.

The first floor is mainly used for various experiments and as a warehouse. Yang Lele usually synthesizes some chemicals here.

After entering the foyer, the entourage brought by Liang Letian and others stayed here: everyone's purpose today was clear to each other, and they mainly went to the second floor to have a look, so only Liang and Mi went upstairs.

After reaching the second floor, Liang and Mi changed into isolation suits and rain boots in the foyer, then stepped through the lime pool for disinfection before following Yang Le into Laboratory No. 1.

It looks like a quiet laboratory, but there are actually a lot of people inside: 10 "female workers" in white coats, each with a microscope in front of them, and some bottles and jars, working on a long table

Busy after the case.

After leaning behind a female worker and taking a few glances, Mi Shuo, who had worked as an agricultural technician at a seed company, whispered into Yang Lele's ear: "Yes, I'm getting more and more skilled."

"Practice makes perfect." Yang Le smiled and nodded.

Potato and sweet potato seedlings need to be detoxified. The work of these female workers is part of the detoxification process.

As the number of planting generations of improved sweet potato and potato varieties increases, the plants will become smaller, the growth will decline, the tubers will become smaller, and the yield and quality will decrease significantly. This is called species degeneration.

Seed degradation seriously affects crop yields, and what is the cause of seed degradation? Viruses.

Sweet potato and potato plant viruses will continue to spread in the crops through infectious sources such as insects, nematodes, and fungi, causing the crops to deteriorate from generation to generation.

The most important task of the seed base at this stage is to use the stem tip detoxification technology commonly used in later generations to obtain non-toxic crop seeds.

Anyone who has seen moldy bread slices or potato slices will know that the mold is not spread evenly on the bread, but forms plaques of different sizes like drops of ink. This is the normal form of bacterial community growth.

.

The shoot tip detoxification technology also takes advantage of this point: the virus is unevenly distributed in plant tissues.

The detoxification technology is to first cut off the top growth points of the virus-containing tubers, then tissue-culture these parts with relatively low virus concentrations to generate seedlings, and then select non-toxic seedlings through testing.

What these female workers busy at the desk are doing is using microscopes to select non-toxic seeds.

Generally speaking, the virus-free rate of a wave of seedlings is only a few percent or a few thousandths. This is why the laboratory needs so many female workers: each of them has to tediously test hundreds or thousands of materials after

, in order to select some non-toxic seedlings.

In terms of their true identities, these female workers are just ordinary refugee women who came across the sea, and most of them are illiterate.

However, just like the female workers on the electronic production line in later generations, the laboratory does not require them to know any science and technology. They only need to use their natural female patience to mechanically select non-toxic seeds.

After passing through Laboratory No. 1, the three of them came to the long second laboratory.

Laboratory No. 2 opens up all the remaining rooms in the building. The long passage is flanked by large-format glass windows and wooden windows added to the exterior to block light and storms when needed.

The long corridor after opening it has a very sci-fi feel.

Long strips of light tubes extend along people's heads into the distance. In the corners are extended cast-iron plumbing pipes. Layers of iron racks are piled up on both sides of the aisle. On each floor there is a glass constant-temperature cultivation room like a sealed fish tank.

, the light tubes inside are also emitting soft light, illuminating the rows of triangular glassware.

This is the seedling breeding ground.

The non-toxic seedlings selected by female workers will be cut into sections and then put into triangular bags. A kind of S culture liquid will be prepared in the bags in advance. After the non-toxic seedlings are put in, they will be illuminated at a suitable temperature.

Under certain conditions, roots will take 35 days to grow, and they will grow into small plants in about 20 days. At this time, you can continue to cut into sections to continue propagating, or directly use them to propagate original seeds.

All the above processes must be carried out under sterile conditions, which is why everyone wears isolation suits.

Of course, in addition to this detoxification method, the laboratory also uses heat treatment and some chemicals to treat different types of viruses.

As for base director Yang Lele's daily work, in addition to managing base personnel and these seedlings, he is also responsible for synthesizing chemical agents and culture fluid for seedlings in the laboratory downstairs.

This work takes up most of his time: the chemical composition of the culture solution is relatively complex, and the chemical factory is limited by scale issues and can only provide bulk raw materials at the moment. The specific precise operations still require Yang Le to do it himself in the laboratory.

of.

In the aisle mixed with sunlight and electric light, Liang Lele looked at the petri dishes in the glass box carefully for a while, then turned to ask Director Yang a key question: "We will cultivate another 30.4 million acres of new land after the year. Mainly

The crops are still potatoes and sweet potatoes, can you supply seedlings here?"

"No, I'm too busy." Yang Lele shook his head and said, "It's easy to select and breed seedlings in batches. Just add more female workers. Anyway, we are doing things according to the rules. But I can't handle the synthetic culture medium alone. I

Need help."

Yang Lele said with an emphasis on his tone: "That kind of real assistant."

"I understand, I understand." Liang Cifu rubbed his eyebrows with his fingers, which was his habitual action when he encountered troubles.

The so-called assistants refer to those top students in Chikan Middle School. Biology and chemistry are advanced subjects. At this stage, only a few top students in middle schools have been exposed to junior high school physics and chemistry. What Yang Lele needs is this kind of assistant who can be used as an assistant.

Researchers come to train students all year round.

However, things are not that simple. Before this, the big office had issued a special message to each department: top students must complete all high school courses before they consider working part-time, and things that encourage others are not allowed to happen.

So Lao Liang now has a headache: laboratory assistants must have physical and chemical knowledge, but these people are now being detained.

After looking at Mi Shuo out of habit, it was Mi Shuo who said a hard word: "This matter must be resolved. There will be more fields to be cultivated in the future, and Director Yang can't be exhausted by himself."

Come on, you can go find Lao Xia tomorrow."
Chapter completed!