Chapter 187 It is completely testing the imagination of cadres!
"What is the approximate wheat yield per acre of these fields? Butler Liu, do you know?" Yu Hua looked at the golden ocean outside the car window and asked softly.
Yu Hua didn't know much about the agricultural field. As a native of Sichuan Province, he was most familiar with rice, not wheat. He was a little curious about the wheat yield per mu during the Republic of China.
"It is estimated that the irrigated land can hold 1,780 kilograms, and the semi-sand land can hold 120 kilograms, which is good. As for the dry land, it can hold up to 100 kilograms, and most of the time it is about 80 kilograms. Outside
These fields should be irrigated, and it seems that one hundred and eighty pounds is no problem." Liu Wei heard Yu Hua's question, thought about it, searched for relevant memories in his mind, and said slowly.
"There is only a yield range of eighty to one hundred and eighty catties?!" Yu Hua seemed a little surprised by this yield data. He was not questioning the data, but was surprised that the wheat yield per mu was so small.
few.
There are really too few.
With good irrigated land, the maximum yield per mu is only 90 kilograms, while the yield per mu of dry land is as low as 40 kilograms. After half a year of hard work, the harvest is not enough to fill the belly. Even if the northern region can produce two kinds of wheat a year, the annual output is only
There is only a range of 180kg-80kg.
Very few.
No wonder, famines have occurred in recent years if we are not careful.
Although he knew that grain output during the Republic of China was very low, after obtaining the exact output data, Yu Hua really did not expect that wheat output would be so low.
According to a Zhihu discussion article I once read, the yield per mu of super wheat in later generations is as high as 600 kilograms, and the yield per mu of super hybrid rice that Yu Hua is most familiar with has exceeded the 1,000 kilogram level.
Let’s not talk about super hybrid rice for the moment. Just comparing the yield of super wheat with current wheat, the gap is 6.6 times to 15 times.
Of course, we need to pay attention to the unit of measurement here. The jin in the Republic of China and the jin in later generations are both 500 grams. However, the former is 16 taels per catty, 31.25 grams per tael, while the latter is 10 taels per catty, 50 grams per tael.
The units of kilograms are the same, but the units of kilograms are different.
"This is normal. You have been in class and have never been to the fields. If you can encounter such good times every year, many farmers will not have to leave their hometowns. Our people are suffering, regardless of the output of the fields.
For one hundred and eighty kilograms of grain, the self-cultivators need public grain and various local exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. The semi-owner farmers have to pay half of the rented land. The poor farmers can only harvest half or even 30% of the land they farm each year. If they get 180 kilograms of wheat, they will burn it if they can only get 50 kilograms.
It’s highly fragrant, and the wheat seeds have to be deducted.”
Seeing Yu Hua's deeply touched look, Liu Wei sighed softly and continued to explain: "There are also farm laborers. These farmers are the most miserable. They have neither cultivated land nor houses. They can only work at the landlord's house and produce output."
The grain belongs to the owner, the ownership of the land also belongs to the owner, and everything belongs to the owner. The wages for food and housing are negligible, and the number of poor peasants and farm laborers accounts for more than 70% of the country's total population."
farmer.
This is the main social class in China. More than hundreds of millions of farmers have been struggling to survive. For them, no movement or revolution can compare to the crops in the fields.
People must first satisfy their survival needs before they can satisfy their spiritual needs.
The grain is bigger than the sky and heavier than the mountains.
"One grain of millet is planted in spring, and ten thousand grains are harvested in autumn. There is no idle land in the world, and farmers still starve to death." Lin Wan's voice came out, and a poem described the hardships of farmers.
After a year of busy work, they don’t have enough to eat or wear warm clothes. If there is a natural disaster, they will suffer a devastating blow. The scene of Yi Zi cannibalizing will continue to happen.
There was some silence in the Buick.
Farmers or Mikes who were harvesting wheat in the distance saw a Buick car driving smoothly, with a hint of envy and awe in their eyes, and then they immersed themselves in their work.
"Food..." Yu Hua stared at the harvest scene outside the window and silently thought about the problem of food. He was a person who was wary of danger in times of peace and had an extremely strong sense of worry. He should not worry about issues such as semi-owner farmers and poor peasants. What he cared about was food output.
.
The importance of food is self-evident. Recently there was the Anti-Japanese War, and a few years later the Great Famine in He Province in which three million people starved to death. In the distant past, there were a series of serious problems caused by food.
Starving to death is the most miserable and pitiful way to die, and countless people in China have died of starvation.
"Yu Hua, what's wrong?" Lin Wan asked, looking at Yu Hua who was lost in thought.
"Nothing, I'm wondering if I can cultivate high-yielding wheat seeds through genetic breeding. I once read an article about crop hybrid breeding in a foreign academic journal, which proposed breeding through the hybrid experimental method created by Mr. Mendel.
High-yielding corn, the yield data per mu of the experimental field has reached 217.2 kilograms, which is a huge improvement. The author of this article is preparing to tackle the problem of 300 kilograms of high-yielding corn." Yu Hua glanced at Lin Wan, sorted out his thoughts, and remembered the academic journal he read not long ago.
article, taking the opportunity to draw out the method of genetic breeding.
Genetic breeding can be simply understood as cross-breeding.
Breeding is a scientific work, and its theoretical basis comes from genetics. As an emerging discipline in the 20th century, genetics is still in its infancy, and people have not really realized the true value and importance of genetics.
Crop breeding around the world basically uses pure line testing methods, with only the United States and Germany at the forefront of using hybrid testing methods.
grain supply
It is more difficult to increase crop yield through pure line experiments. The history of Chinese breeding began in 1912. However, crop yield has not been significantly improved at all. In fact, there has been no change at all.
Because breeding is one thing, and promoting new varieties is another.
Hybrid experiments are the best way to cultivate high-yielding crops.
Yu Hua had read a lot of historical novels before. Many of the protagonists returned to ancient times with high-yielding potatoes and high-yielding corns to plant them, thinking that the yield per mu would not change. In fact, crop seeds have always been degenerated and their properties are not stable.
The yield will be very high at the beginning, but as time goes by and generation after generation occurs, the yield per mu will continue to decrease.
To maintain high crop yields, scientific breeding and cross-breeding are necessary, as well as continuous investment.
As soon as these words came out, there was an instant silence in the car. The young driver who was driving the car suddenly shook his hands, the body of the car was slightly tilted, and he quickly straightened up and stabilized the steering wheel.
"The yield per mu is 217.2 kilograms?" Lin Wan and Liu Wei said in unison, staring at Yu Hua with disbelief in their eyes.
Shocking!
Shock that goes deep into your heart!
217.2 kilograms, this figure occupied almost everyone's brains. Liu Wei, Lin Wan and the young driver all understood what this figure meant.
The yield of corn per mu is 434.4 kilograms!
What is the yield of corn per mu in China?
About 170 pounds.
"Yes, this article is from Monsanto Company in the United States. The author is Serge Buono. This is a company that produces saccharin, but it is also engaged in research in the field of breeding."
Yu Hua nodded. He had read this article before, but he didn't pay much attention to it. At that time, he mainly focused on mathematical problems and ignored the field of food crop breeding: "I think that since corn can be cultivated with high yield through hybridization experiments,
Corn, then wheat can also be cultivated with high yield through this method. By selecting excellent wheat from different regions for crossbreeding, and continuously cultivating it from generation to generation, we will definitely be able to produce high-yield wheat with a yield of more than 300 kilograms per mu. We will never be able to solve the problem by relying on God alone.
The food crisis must rely on the power of science."
If you can stand on the shoulders of giants, you will never squat in a well. This set of crop breeding theoretical basis came from the later generation Yuan Lao. Yu Hua was not stingy and directly informed Lin Wan in this subtle way.
The mainstream method of modern crop breeding is hybridization. Many people in later generations say that hybrid rice does not taste good and is not as delicious as Thai rice. To be honest, it is purely because Mr. Yuan made these people eat too much.
In this era, the most important thing is to put taste and other things behind and increase crop yield.
"Classmate Yu, can you really achieve a high yield of 300 kilograms of wheat? Although I don't farm much, I still know the concept of a yield of 600 kilograms per mu." Liu Wei still couldn't accept it. He felt like something was broken in his heart.
Come on, when talking about crop yields in the past, the maximum wheat yield was only 1,780 kilograms, equivalent to only about 90 kilograms. Yu Hua directly asked for a wheat yield of 300 kilograms per mu.
God, even this little guy who had been tempered by the Long March couldn't stand it.
Which red cadre can withstand such a test?
The yield of 300 kilograms of wheat per mu is a complete test of the imagination of the cadres!
Lin Wan stared at Yu Hua closely, the meaning in her eyes was self-evident.
"There is no guarantee, I can only give a rough idea. However, I am not planning to engage in breeding research. Jin Yu, if you have ideas, you can gather a group of classmates to engage in cross-breeding research. You can pass... wait, stop the car." Yu Hua said in his eyes.
He showed confidence, but did not say enough. Although there will be super wheat with a yield of 600 kilograms per mu in future generations, but before the high-yield wheat with a yield of 300 kilograms per mu is developed, one must speak rigorously. Suddenly, the sharp-eyed Yu Hua suddenly noticed something and hurriedly spoke out.
shouted.
"Squeak!" A sharp brake sound came out, and in an instant, the Buick car, which was traveling at a speed of more than 30 kilometers per hour, quickly stopped and pulled over to the side of the road.
Yu Hua opened the car door, ignored Lin Wan and Liu Wei, and went straight to the wheat field ahead. He stared straight ahead. A particularly tall and strong wheat plant stood in the countless golden ocean, which looked particularly conspicuous.
Seeing Yu Hua running into the wheat field, Liu Wei and Lin Wan seemed to realize something, and quickly glanced at the wheat field.
"Interesting, such a coincidence." The itching sensation of the wheat awns piercing the skin came out. Yu Hua paid no attention to the itching hands and quickly came to the target. Looking at the wheat plant full of wheat grains, his eyes were full of joy.