Chapter 401: Bioenergy Industry Becomes More Clear as Debates Grow
In the Gobi Desert, the dry weeds trembled in the cold wind.

Guo Yang returned to the car and learned about the development of the situation through the phone.

As the National Day approaches, the popularity of Hongqi River remains unabated. Various media outlets are still hyping up this project from time to time, and discussions on Weibo remain high.

In terms of agricultural value, food security alone is not enough to leverage such a large investment.

Moreover, the domestic food security problem will soon be solved through breeding and improvement of medium and low-yield fields such as saline-alkali fields.

Therefore, the Hongqi River project requires economic support.

Jiahe’s energy forest strategy is inevitably analyzed.

Even Guo Yang’s article in Agricultural Economics titled “The Era of Energy Crops Has Arrived” was moved to the Internet intact and was repeatedly disassembled.

Can bioenergy really succeed?

Countless people have analyzed this, and based on historical experience, the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry is far from being a mature industry.

Sohu News quoted the experience of Yan Zhou, a practitioner from Liaoning Province.

A few years ago, Yan Zhou, whose main business was in the chemical industry, invested in the Xanthoceras orientalis industry and established a bioenergy company.

Up to now, there has been only input in the economy with almost no output.

Yan Zhou is just a microcosm, and "struggling" can be said to be a true portrayal of many practitioners in the Xanthoceras orientalis industry.

In addition to enterprises, relevant officials, scientific researchers and farmers were also interviewed.

In Tongliao, every time the country promotes the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry, this is the main area.

At present, there is still a Xanthoceras sorbifolia forest farm built in the 1960s in Keerxin, Tongliao.

A few years ago, China National Petroleum Corporation and China Petrochemical Corporation expanded the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industrial forest by tens of thousands of acres, but now it is in a stagnant state.

In the photos provided by Sohu, you can clearly see farmers cutting down Xanthoceras sorbifolia trees.

Such scenes not only appear in many banners, counties and districts in Inner Mongolia Province, but are also gradually being abandoned in Yanci, Lingwu, Tongxin and Haiyuan in Ningxia Province.

In Shizuishan, Ningxia Province, a 3.6 million yuan investment project was abandoned after construction began, 2000 million yuan was lost, and a 40 mu Xanthoceras sorbifolia project in a certain county was completely wiped out. About hundreds of thousands of mu of Xanthoceras sorbifolia have been planted in the entire region, but it is difficult to find mature trees...

In Xinjiang Province, the cultivation of Xanthoceras sorbifolia was introduced from the mainland in the 70s and has spread almost throughout the region.

From Yili in the west to Hami in the east, from Hotan and Kashgar in the south to Altay in the north, Xanthoceras sorbifolia is cultivated and grown everywhere.

Since the beginning of the century, some counties and cities have carried out large-scale planting of Xanthoceras sorbifolia in conjunction with the State Forestry Administration's returning farmland to forest and sand control projects.

Due to the low yield of the introduced varieties and the fact that no one collects the fruits after they bear fruit, many Xanthoceras sorbifolia forests have been abandoned or even cut down and have not developed to date.

In the core area of ​​Jiahe Energy Forest, there are also many voices of opposition.

The director of a sand control station in Zhangye, Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave a report at a sand industry forum, "We have tried to plant Xanthoceras sorbifolia in Shapotou for many years but all failed."

A professor from a university in the northwest also rushed to say: "I led a team of doctoral students to do experimental planting in Minqin for many years, but it also ended in failure."

The Xanthoceras sorbifolia is a mountain of gold and also looks like a dead sea.

How many people of noble character and lofty ideals have come forward one after another, and how many heroes have died in the battlefield!
Not only the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry in the north, but also the Leprosy tree industry in Panzhihua area was pulled out again.

Domestic and international energy giants such as Britain's Suntech Power, America's Baker Hughes, China Petroleum, and China Petrochemical all fled in disgrace, leaving behind a mess in the local area, and even bloody incidents were brought to light.

Each case has been exposed by the media, causing people to worry about Jiahe’s energy strategy.

This is something some opponents and environmentalists would like to see.

So there was more to find out.

Then there were rumors of mass deaths in Jiahe’s energy forest.

Guo Yang has already confirmed that it is a rumor.

Because as soon as you look at the picture, you will know that it is not Jiahe's energy forest gardening style.

The orchard guided by Jiahe is very unique, standard, simple, clean and neat. With just one look, Guo Yang can tell whether it is his own orchard.

Just like people who often read online novels, some authors are so clear-cut that no matter how many times they are discontinued or how many times they change their pseudonyms, readers can always identify them at a glance.

Guo Yang has this feeling now.

The photos of large-scale dead trees in energy forests circulating online are not from Jiahe, the seedlings are wrong.

But they are not all rumors. There are many real pictures of energy forests mixed with true and false ones.

Compared with the dead trees that were rumored to be dead and the felled Xanthoceras sorbifolia trees, the Xanthoceras sorbifolia forest in Jiahe is in much better condition, but the seedlings are indeed bare.

Especially on the front line of sandstorms and on the gully-ridden Loess Plateau, dust flew all over the sky, turning the entire sky yellow.

This seemed to have given environmental protection organizations an outlet for their venting, and they gathered on Weibo to wave their flags and shout their slogans.

"There is a saying in Lanzhou that it is harder to grow a tree in the mountains than to raise a child."

"Let me ask you, can a bare tree like Jiahe survive? Can it withstand the wind, sand and drought?"

"People said that after digging for dozens of meters, all they found was dusty dry soil."

"In the Loess Plateau, some farmers need to carry water from reservoirs in the valleys to irrigate the seedlings in order to get Jiahe's energy forest subsidies and management fees. Even so, it is difficult to keep the trees alive."

"The Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry has experienced several ups and downs, and the difficulty of survival after transplantation and low yield are problems that have never been solved."

"If these two problems are not solved, the Xanthoceras sorbifolia energy forest is just empty talk, and the so-called support for the Hongqi River project is even more a pipe dream!"

In response to these critical voices, Jiahe Biochemical also took the initiative to speak out.

He frequently made various explanations on Huinong and Weibo.

For example, bare mountains and bare trees.

This is because unnecessary branches were cut off when the seedlings were planted to reduce water evaporation, and the leaves fell in autumn, so it looks like there is only one main trunk left.

In addition, the fact that the seedlings look short and dry is actually the key reason why they are easy to survive after transplanting.

"The main reason why Xanthoceras sorbifolia is difficult to survive after transplantation is its 'deep rooting', and its roots grow faster than the stems.

The main root of one-year-old seedlings is more than 1 meter deep, so it can resist drought and cold. The tree can grow to 2.5 meters high if it is adequately nourished. However, as the seedlings grow taller, the roots grow deeper, and they will be severely injured when digging, making it difficult for them to survive after transplanting.

Jiahe uses greenhouse tissue culture to expand the plant and open-air container cultivation. Through container and water-controlled seedling cultivation techniques, the seedlings can grow to only 50 to 60 centimeters in height.

In this way, its taproot grows shorter, while the lateral roots become more numerous and developed.

Therefore, although our seedlings look a little short and dry, they are easy to survive after transplanting and have strong stamina! "

"In order to increase the survival rate and extend the planting time, we adopted methods such as pruning, soaking the roots in medicine, dipping the roots in mud, and wrapping the roots in plastic."

"Jiahe has planted tens of billions of Haloxylon ammodendron, Hippophae rhamnoides, and Populus euphratica in the Gobi Desert... When it comes to tree planting, we are the professionals!"

Such confidence is touching!
Such professional science popularization attracted a lot of attention, comments and reposts!

Li Yongcai, who was far away in Shanxi Province, also responded to this at the first time. The company he registered was called Shanxi Green Water and Green Mountains Biotechnology Co., Ltd.

Green water and green mountains speak for themselves and describe the experiences of the past year.

As the first coal boss to respond to Jiahe Energy Forest, Jiahe provided him with the greatest support, the best seedlings, and technical guidance from start to finish.

Even so, it took hardships that ordinary people could hardly imagine.

The frost in spring, in particular, once made him break out in a cold sweat. The newly planted Xanthoceras sorbifolia quickly sprouted, but were frozen away by the frost.

However, new shoots soon sprouted out and grew better and better.

Over the past six months, the seedlings planted in the spring have not only grown to more than 1.5 meters in height, but the taproots that have been freed from the seal are also desperately drilling into the ground.

This caused the first batch of Xanthoceras to bloom in the summer, but for the growth of the trees, the flowers were thinned out proactively.

Even so, the Xanthoceras sorbifolia orchard is still lush and green in autumn, forming a sharp contrast with the bare branches and leaves of the newly planted seedlings!

But Li Yongcai is full of confidence in "Baby's Back"!

In addition to Li Yongcai, such examples can be found everywhere in the Hexi Corridor and eastern Longdong.

Thanks to the return of migrant workers, some young people stayed in their hometowns.

These people have also registered accounts on platforms such as Huinong and Weibo to share their orchards.

Either bare poles or lush branches and leaves, this is the simple, clean and neat Jiahe series Xanthoceras orchid garden!
Some orchards look like heresy at first glance!
Many rumors and hearsay were refuted!
But there are also people who hold on to it tightly.

For example, some regional institutions in Ning Province resolutely refuse to admit that their technology is poor, and opponents of the Hongqi River project, such as environmentalists, are still finding fault.

Faced with some deliberate provocations, Ning Xiaojing, vice president of Jiahe Biochemical, also made some unconventional counterattacks.

"A careful analysis of the reasons for the failure shows that the government and enterprises were optimistic about the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry, with ambitious goals and huge investments, but they knew nothing about Xanthoceras sorbifolia seedlings and technology, and finally fell into the big pit of agriculture.

Agriculture is actually the simplest industry in the world, but also the most difficult industry. It is simple because everyone can farm. It is difficult because if there is no experience accumulated by the general public, no one can farm from scratch.

"Xanthoceras sorbifolia is an ancient tree species, but it is a new industry. There are many mistakes made by experts and in books."

"There are two reasons why the planting of hundreds of thousands of mu of Xanthoceras sorbifolia in Shizuishan, Ningxia Province failed. One is that we asked professors who had no practical experience in planting to provide guidance.

The second is being too stingy. Whether it is purchasing seeds or seedlings, they always look for the cheapest ones. Can you imagine what good results can come from this?

By the time they discovered that the seeds did not germinate and the seedlings did not grow leaves, it was already too late.

It was precisely because of the complete failure of planting Xanthoceras sorbifolia that Ning Province came to the conclusion that it was not suitable for growing Xanthoceras sorbifolia. "

Such remarks caused dissatisfaction in some places, and they registered official accounts in newspapers and even on Weibo to confront Jiahe Biochemical.

When the sore spots of local institutions in Ning Province were exposed, they began to make open and covert sarcasms.

“People say that Xanthoceras sorbifolia is a sacred tree that can only be planted by Bodhisattvas, and Jiahe just wants to sell seeds and seedlings to reap profits from investors.

Just like the newly established "Five acres for a Mercedes-Benz" column, which boasts about its own varieties, an apple seedling is sold for 50 yuan, which is more than ten times the market price. Isn't this a tax on IQ?"

Not only Ningxia Province, but also Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi and other regions that have repeatedly developed the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry over the past few decades have joined this big discussion.

It's just that the rest is more moderate and rational.

Tongliao, Inner Mongolia Province said: "The seed production of Xanthoceras sorbifolia in Tongliao was once the highest in the country, but the production still cannot meet the requirements of large-scale development, especially the extremely low yield, which makes the economic benefits of Xanthoceras sorbifolia far less than those of livestock and grain." Hebei Province said: "The characteristics of Xanthoceras sorbifolia such as drought resistance, salt resistance and cold resistance allow it to grow in extreme environments, with excellent ecological benefits.

However, the low yield of one fruit per thousand flowers makes it difficult to scale up the raw materials. The production cost of using the tree seeds as raw materials is high and lacks market competitiveness. "

Liaoning Province: "In this turbulent economic society, Xanthoceras sorbifolia is indeed a good industry that benefits the country and the people, but the development of the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry across the country is difficult and unsatisfactory.

Many group companies, listed companies and large companies have come in droves, but there are more set projects and fewer real ones, more failures and fewer successes, and even fewer that actually engage in industry and achieve some results.

Indeed, the Xanthoceras sorbifolia is a sacred tree. Those who can grow the Xanthoceras sorbifolia are either great monks or people of great virtue.

If Jiahe's Wenguan Fruit can really make achievements, it will benefit the whole society, and he is a man of great virtue!"

Longnan Province: "There are two artificially planted century-old Xanthoceras sorbifolia trees in Longnan Province, one in Lanzhou and one in Jingyuan. This spring, they both sprouted new buds."

Ning Sheng: What you mean is that you all survived, but I was the only one who was wiped out?
Others: Why don’t you just quit the group!

...

The truth becomes clearer the more it is debated.

With many participants joining the discussion, many ordinary people and investors who are paying attention to related industries have also come to understand the mystery behind the industry.

Why did the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry fail in the past?
Where is the difficulty?

Where does Jiahe get its confidence?
Why can the energy forest support the construction of the Hongqi River Project?
The answers to each question can gradually be found on the Internet.

In addition to the tit-for-tat, many colleges and local governments have also come out to support Jiahe Biochemical and endorsed Jiahe's Xanthoceras sorbifolia variety - Golden Snail.

Among them, Professor Su Shuchai of Beijing Forestry University hit the nail on the head, and his speech received the most comments and reposts.

"In the beginning, I was not optimistic about Jiahe's bioenergy strategy, but in the past six months, my opinion has changed 180 degrees."

"The news that Jiahe is betting everything on energy forests is no longer a secret in the academic community. Many people have been arguing about it, but there are also many people like me who have personally experienced and investigated it.

At the beginning of the year, at the invitation of the Hua Xia Agricultural University team, my team members and I drove from Jingtai, Baiyin, and started our journey to grow Xanthoceras sorbifolia in Gansu Province.

It took a month to travel through cities and counties, visiting villages and households, covering thousands of miles, walking through ice and snow, deserts and Gobi, and leaving footprints all over the Hexi Corridor.

The enthusiasm of the people here for energy forests is beyond imagination.

It was not until we fully understood the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry system planned and implemented by Jiahe that we realized that this time it might really work.

The Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry, an industry that several generations have devoted their efforts and placed high hopes on, has in the past been on an almost fatal detour - native seedlings.

This directly led to the fact that "one thousand flowers and one fruit" became a difficult hurdle that was difficult to overcome.

I have seen many Xanthoceras sorbifolia forests, among which the seed yield per mu of 7-year-old trees with good management is only 8 kilograms. According to this calculation, if the management is in place, it will take 21 years to recover the cost.

In the past, grassroots organizations focused on planting trees, and research work was done by experts in ecological forestry or botany.

However, there are few fruit tree experts who are studying how to make Xanthoceras sorbifolia bear more fruit, and the only ones who choose to study it are grafting superior seedlings.

However, Xanthoceras sorbifolia is cross-pollinated, its offspring are all heterozygous, the coefficient of variation is relatively large, and the proportion of superior plants is very low.

In simple terms, even if the seeds of superior plants are used for reproduction, only one superior tree may be produced from 10,000 seeds. Therefore, even if superior varieties are available in the future, it will be difficult to achieve large-scale production in a short period of time due to the limited number of mother plants and the slow grafting speed.

However, Jiahe's Golden Conch seems to have opened a new window.

According to Jiahe, the seed yield of golden snail is as high as 200 jin per mu!
This is an incredible yield!
How this variety was bred is Jiahe’s trade secret and we don’t know.

But it is no secret that golden snails can be propagated through tissue culture.

Relevant enterprises and scientific research institutions have been researching the tissue culture technology of Xanthoceras sorbifolia for some years, but it is still in the early stages.

Because most Xanthoceras sorbifolia plants are Sapindaceae plants, they have problems such as low tissue culture propagation coefficient and difficulty in rooting.

However, the golden snail has solved this series of problems based on the physiological characteristics of the species.

The quality of the Xanthoceras sorbifolia seedlings bred in the tissue culture factory is amazingly good!
Our starting point, Jingtai, is located on the edge of the Tengger Desert, at the eastern wind outlet of the Hexi Corridor. It has strong sunshine intensity and a dry climate. Nine out of ten years there are droughts, and nine out of ten crops fail to produce a harvest.

Before the Jingdian project was put into operation, it was a wasteland with desertified soil, large temperature differences between day and night, and was prone to sudden extreme weather changes.

The mountain farmer said: "This is a place where no one lives!

However, even in such a place where extremely bad weather occurs frequently, the golden snails have withstood the test and are growing better and better!

In addition to its sophisticated planting techniques, Jiahe's breeding technology is the basis for its bet on bioenergy forests.

In our communication with Bi Qiang, president of Tianhe Seed Science Research Institute, we learned that in addition to the original Xanthoceras sorbifolia nursery in Zhangye, Tianhe has successively built new tissue culture factories and nurseries in other regions.

One of the locations chosen was Jingtai.

According to folk proverbs, this is a barren land where there are no birds in the sky, no grass on the ground, the wind blows the stones away, the mountains are bare, and sheepskins do not touch grass.

It is the most unsuitable place for human habitation.

However, Bi Qiang said that this is a treasure land for breeding and seedling cultivation, and only such extremely harsh weather can produce excellent seedlings and new varieties.

The Xanthoceras sorbifolia seedlings cultivated here can withstand the test of any climate and ensure their survival no matter where they are transplanted.

In addition to Jingtai, the locations of Tianhe's other Xanthoceras sorbifolia nurseries are not easy to choose.

There are the high-latitude Altai Mountains;

There is the Ruoqiang Oasis on the edge of the Taklimakan Desert in southern Xinjiang;
There is the extremely arid edge of the Kumtag Desert, so much so that they once thought of building a nursery in Lop Nur Town;

Gonghe County, Qinghai Province, located on the northeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is known as the throat of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and is located south of the famous Qinghai Lake.

There are the snow-covered areas of Shigatse and Nyingchi, the southernmost geographical distribution area of ​​Xanthoceras sorbifolia. If the precipitation in Medog was not too high, I have no doubt that Tianhe would build the nursery in the heart of the Yarlung Zangbo River.

I believe that after reading this, many people will realize how "deliberate" Jiahe is!
They didn’t consider failure!
They do everything with confidence!
So, when I saw some people 'worrying' about the survival rate of Xanthoceras sorbifolia, I just felt it was funny for a moment.

If even these Xanthoceras sorbifolia seedlings cannot be grown, then just give up this industry!

Obviously, this worry is unnecessary.

Be more patient, friends!
Just wait until spring and summer, and the sea of ​​flowers in the mountains will take you into a new world!
Although Jiahe said that the Hongqi River project was just a concept, they took every step on the mark!

Shigatse - Nyingchi - Gonghe - Jingtai - Zhangye - Jiuquan - Lop Nur - Ruoqiang - Altai...

If we connect Jiahe’s leprosy tree industry bases and nurseries in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guangxi, a magnificent route map will emerge on the map!

The only suspense in the industry now may be whether the golden snail can generally produce 200 kilograms per mu.

If it can be achieved, compared with the 8 years it takes to recover the investment from seedlings that produce 21 kilograms of seeds per mu, the high-quality golden snail + tissue culture may only take three years.

The reason why it is not two years is because in order to allow the trees to grow longer, Jiahe does not allow fruit farmers to bear fruit in the second year.

A yield of 200 kilograms of golden snails per mu is enough to support the large-scale development of the industry.

In summary, Jiahe has found a way out for the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry: improved varieties + tissue culture.

As for the Hongqi River concept, from the perspective of industrial development, I strongly support it.

But all this depends on whether the industry pioneer Jiahe can completely open up this energy industry chain.

All this will happen in two years. Let us wait and see!"

...

Once this short article was published, it was forwarded by many media and bloggers and widely circulated on the Internet.

Relevant teams from many universities including Hua Xia Agricultural University also forwarded, confirmed and supplemented the information.

Professor Su also became an Internet celebrity for a while, and he would add some details on Weibo from time to time.

In the academic world, many industry experts have delivered industry reports and academic lectures in major universities and provinces.

In just a few days, the turmoil caused by rumors was temporarily resolved.

Instead, it made the bioenergy forest famous and spread across the country.

From the perspective of social and economic benefits, once Jiahe opens up this industrial chain, the profits it can bring will drive the whole society crazy.

This will be a trillion-dollar industry!

Some people and organizations could no longer wait and flocked to the northwest and southwest to find out what was going on.

Even opponents like Zhao Xitao became even more helpless.

Although the second article he released still held an opposing attitude, some clues could be gleaned from the title.

How much water can be transferred across the basins of the five rivers and one river in the west? — Second review of the Hongqi River "concept"

Despite the opposition, every step of analysis is contributing to the preliminary work of this mega project.

The only remaining opposition may be the hardcore environmentalists.

Their attention turned to the leprosy tree industry in the dry and hot river valley area, simply because someone in Panzhihua area cried out on the Internet about the trauma left by the leprosy tree industry.

But this voice is extremely weak in the overall situation.

When Chuxiong showed off its leprosy energy forest full of vitality...the Panxi region cried even harder.

His tone was sometimes filled with complaints towards Jiahe.

Yun Guichuan: Why don’t you quit the group too? It’s not good to offend the boss.

Panxi: I won’t retreat!

The environmental protection organizations were trembling with anger, it turns out I was just a tool!

Gui Sheng pushed him away and said: Get out of the way, don’t block the way, I’m going to use my ultimate move!
Guo Yang's trip to Dunhuang West Lake and Lop Nur Town was interrupted as the leaders of Guangxi Province invited him to discuss the Pinglu Canal.

From Ding Yi, Guo Yang learned that it was the energy and forestry industry that gave Guangxi Province confidence.

Guo Yang thought it was very interesting, so he agreed to go and have a listen.

But before people got on the plane, the latest monthly publication of "Agricultural Economics" for National Day was released: A Directory of Famous Agricultural Enterprises - Inside and Outside the Threshold of the 100 Billion-level Club.

He is also one of the cover characters this time.

(End of this chapter)