Chapter 174 173. Visitors from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences

One day in September, Luo Yihang received a call.

The next day, a black Audi with a local license plate stopped in front of Luo Yihang's house.

Luo Yihang went out to greet him.

After the car stopped, a young man wearing a white shirt, trousers and white gloves got out of the driver's seat. He got out of the car, respectfully opened the back door, and then stood beside the car without moving.

An old man and a young man got out from the back seat, one on each side.

When they saw Luo Yihang, they smiled and walked over.

"You must be Mr. Luo, hello. This is Professor Du Jing from the Institute of Environmental Resources of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. I am his student." The middle-aged man took the lead and introduced the old man behind him, Professor Du Jing, to Luo Yihang.

Professor Du is not tall, less than 1.7 meters, thin, with a dark and brown face full of wrinkles and a weather-beaten look. This is because he has been outdoors all year round and has been severely sunburned.

The hair is thick, gray, and looks old.

He is only fifty-six years old, but looks to be in his sixties or almost seventy.

A dark and thin old man.

Professor Du was very kind. He took the initiative to extend his hand and said with a smile: "Comrade Xiao Luo, we finally meet. I have heard a lot about you. I hope I am not disturbing you by coming to your house."

Luo Yihang also took two quick steps forward, bowed slightly, and held Professor Du's hands with both hands.

Rough, dry and strong.

He smiled and said, "Hello, Professor Du. I am also very familiar with your name, but I cannot invite you. I am so happy that you can come."

Actually, Luo Yihang didn't know who this person was a few days ago, but ever since a little spy named Ding revealed the news, Luo Yihang really knew about him.

Searched.

A senior expert at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, researcher, doctoral supervisor, professor at the Agricultural University, academic and technical leader, advanced worker, member of the Hundred Thousand Talents Project, recipient of special allowances from the State Council, he is expected to be elected as an academician before the age of 60.

He has received many honors.

He is also the mentor of a young man from the Agricultural College who is favored by Ding Rui's neighbor, Sister Zhao.

That is……

After greeting Professor Du, Luo Yihang turned to the middle-aged man next to him. He should be middle-aged, as it is not easy to tell their age when they are engaged in agriculture.

"You are the one Sister Zhao said..." He didn't say anything else, but gossip was evident in his eyes.

"Hello, I'm Qi Ruomu, and I'm Professor Du's student. The Sister Zhao you mentioned should be my junior fellow apprentice. I don't have that blessing because my child is already two years old."

It's a bit embarrassing that I gossiped about the wrong person.

Luo Yihang quickly invited everyone into the house, asked Professor Du and Qi Ruomu to sit down, and made some tea.

The driver didn't come in.

Sitting down to chat, Luo Yihang was trying to find a topic to talk about.

Professor Du spoke first, "Xiao Luo, I have wanted to come and see you for a long time, but I never had the time. Now I just happened to be going to the Southern Shaanxi Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine. When I looked at the place, I saw that it was a coincidence that I arrived yesterday. I will ask the institute to send a car today, and I must come and see you."

"Are you also researching medicine?" Luo Yihang asked following up the conversation.

Professor Du waved his hand and said, "I'm going to find some medicinal plants that are drought-tolerant and temperature-tolerant and plant them in the desert. I've almost visited all the places in the country that are researching medicinal materials."

"Plant it in the desert?" Luo Yihang asked curiously.

"Yes, in the desert, there is a professor named Yi from Shancheng Jiaotong University who invented a material that can make the sand in the desert produce the same physical effect as soil."

"There are 700,000 square kilometers of desert in the country, and only 1.4 million square kilometers of arable land."

"With so much desert, not to mention too much, if one-tenth of it could be transformed into farmland, that would be 100 million acres."

"Just kidding, if this is really done, the extra 100 million mu of land can be used to grow soybeans, so there will be no need to import soybeans, feed and oil prices can be kept low, and people all over the country can eat cheap meat."

Professor Du said self-deprecatingly, "I have studied soil all my life, but in the end, the desert was turned into fertile land, a career that will benefit generations to come, but it was accomplished by a civil engineer."

Qi Ruomu added: "Desert soil transformation has been studied for seven or eight years. The first few desert transformations are already ready for application. This time, my supervisor was invited to participate in the study of soil properties after large-scale planting."

"That's right. After the desert is transformed, we have to use it. We have to plant things." Professor Du continued, "It's a joke to plant only soybeans. We have to plant crops, medicinal plants, forage grasses, trees, and everything else. Whichever one succeeds is good."

"I have found more than a dozen species of cabbage across the country this time. Some are drought-resistant, heat-resistant, fast-growing, and their extracts can treat rhinitis. I plan to plant them and give it a try."

Professor Du is very talkative and his speech is easy to understand and he uses plain language.

On the contrary, his students unconsciously used some professional terms when speaking.

The project that Professor Du participated in turned the desert into fertile fields. Anyone who hears about it would give him a thumbs up. It's so awesome.
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After a quick chat, everyone quickly became closer.

Professor Du put down his teacup and suggested, "Xiao Luo, take us to see your fields."

Luo Yihang naturally would not refuse.

The group walked out of the yard and came to the fields.

Professor Du pointed to the terraced field in front of him and asked, "Is this where the soil samples were collected these times?"

Luo Yihang nodded and asked, "So the soil sample was sent to you. Is there anything special about it?"

"Do you think your field is special, but don't know why?" Professor Du asked with a smile.

Luo Yihang nodded.

He knows why, but he doesn't know why in the eyes of science. "I study soil, so I will tell you what I found from the soil aspect," Professor Du explained. "We found from the soil samples that the microbial community in the soil is very rich and active. It has reached a stable balance."

"This is the most amazing thing. You know, the world of microorganisms is not harmonious. They are always fighting, devouring each other, competing for living space, and one grows while the other declines."

“Here you have an almost complete population of microorganisms that are very stable and balanced, and even active.”

“Crops grown in this kind of soil are naturally special.”

Luo Yihang probably understood that emotional aura could also act on microorganisms. It turned out that the goodness of his things was not due to wood, but to soil.

After giving Luo Yihang a brief introduction, Professor Du pointed to the field and asked, "Do you mind if I take some more soil samples?"

"As you please, you're welcome."

"Okay, Xiao Qi, bring the stuff here."

Qi Ruomu responded, went to the car, opened the trunk, and took out a big bag.

When I opened it, I saw all kinds of shovels, sticks, bottles and jars, all of which showed obvious signs of use, and they were quite old.

"This is Professor Du's treasure. He takes it with him wherever he goes." Qi Ruomu introduced it to Luo Yihang when he saw that Luo Yihang was curious.

As they were talking, the long-handled shovel for digging soil had been assembled.

Professor Du personally went to the fields and took soil samples from several locations using the cross-layer method. He took samples of both the surface soil and deep soil, put them in small bottles, and put labels on them.

He patted the dirt off his hands and asked Luo Yihang, "Is this the only special place here? Are there any other places?"

Luo Yihang pointed upwards along the gravel road at the entrance, "There's another one up there, it's also mine."

"Okay, let's go and have a look."

Without wasting any time, the group got in the car and drove to the field on the platform.

The piece above is very lush, with large areas of green and lush vegetables, many of which have already grown and are bearing fruit.

Professor Du walked straight into the field and touched a cucumber.

After giving a gesture and getting consent, he just stuck it down.

Without washing it, I just rubbed it with my big hands to remove the small thorns on the cucumber and then put it in my mouth and bite it.

"Wow, it tastes really good."

Luo Yihang wanted to show off, "Of course not, the food grown in my home tastes really good."

The purpose of saying this is to bring up the question that has always puzzled me, "Professor Du, why do you say this thing tastes so good?"

Professor Du smiled and asked, "Do you know what it tastes like?"

"Taste buds? Nutrition? Perception? Living habits?" Luo Yihang answered several terms in succession, all of which he had looked up in the past few days.

Professor Du shook his head. "That's completely right, but not completely right. The taste itself is actually free amino acids, an organic compound that exists in a free state in living organisms."

"Free amino acids can present tastes such as sour, sweet, bitter and fresh that can be perceived by the human body. This is taste."

"Then, after tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of years of evolution, animals have taste preferences, not just humans. By trying countless kinds of food, they define the taste that is beneficial to them as good, delicious, and tasty, and they get ravenous just thinking about it. Then they define the taste that is not good for them as bad, unpalatable, smelly, and make them want to vomit when they see it, and so on."

"Of course, good and bad are just broad categories, and there are individual differences."

"So, what tastes good and what doesn't taste good is a big question, a multidisciplinary research topic involving organic chemistry, human sociology, animal evolution, agronomy, biology, etc."

Professor Du seemed to have gotten into the rhythm of teaching and treated Luo Yihang as a student.

“Let’s go back to why your food is delicious, delicious in the human sense.”

"I analyzed it and it's still because of the microorganisms in the soil."

"You have a complete and active collection of microorganisms here, and the organic matter they decompose is comprehensive and abundant, so whatever ingredients the crops need can be supplied."

“The materials are sufficient and comprehensive, and all kinds of amino acids are produced in plants.”

"And what you grow are crops, and the crops themselves have been selected generation after generation, selected based on human needs. They are specially cultivated."

“What humans define as a good free amino acid composition is sufficient and comprehensive, and naturally it is very delicious.”

After listening to the class, Luo Yihang suddenly realized that this is how science explains it.

We will talk about it later.

Our products are good and have been endorsed by experts from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Professor Du was aroused by the talk of sex, and he used the field under his feet to talk to Luo Yihang and mainly his student Qi Ruomu about various knowledge about soil microorganisms.

Decomposition of organic matter, symbiosis and competition between different communities, transformation of organic and inorganic matter, enzymes, etc.

Strolling through the fields.

Walked to the other end.

Professor Du suddenly exclaimed, "Wait a minute."

He hurriedly crossed the ridge, walked to the wasteland on the opposite side and grabbed a handful of soil, then walked back and grabbed a handful of soil from Luo Yihang's field.

"Xiao Luo, your field is not right..."

(End of this chapter)