Chapter 1105 Chapter 127 Hybrid Rice
In the end, out of interest considerations, France had to give up French Gabon to Germany under the power of Germany.
At this time, Germany is superior to France in all aspects, at least in terms of industrial data and military strength. Therefore, France is at a disadvantage in negotiations from the beginning. However, this time in the Moroccan crisis, France is also Not without gain.
Germany's aggressiveness also made the British further alert to Germany, and their attitude towards France further improved.
……
August 2, 1911.
West Coast Province, Agricultural Research Institute of Luanda.
The Luanda Agricultural Research Institute is located in the northeast of Luanda City. The institute has a large area of experimental fields for introduced crops. It is one of the core agricultural research institutions in western Africa established in 1893 in East Africa.
Its important role is to introduce agricultural varieties from the South Atlantic region and add high-quality agricultural varieties from East Africa through research and demonstration.
Today is the experimental field No. 0273 of the Luanda Agricultural Research Institute. It is the day of rice harvest. Many members of the institute have gathered at the experimental field No. 0273 to prepare for the evaluation of agricultural varieties in the experimental field.
Director Andre and many researchers went into battle in person, harvesting bit by bit with sickles. Because the planting area was not large, everyone quickly completed the follow-up work.
After the threshing was completed, Andre said excitedly: "Get on the scale!"
After a while, the results came out.
"Professor Andre, the final calculation result is that the yield is about seventy-five kilograms per acre."
Hearing this result, Andre sighed: "Sure enough, it still has not reached our level. Psychological expectations, but it is considered qualified.”
Kelder, an intern who had just entered the institute, asked: "Senior He Bo, this rice variety seems to be very different from the rice varieties we usually grow."
A researcher named He Bo He nodded and said: "Yes, you just arrived here not long ago, so you don't know. This kind of rice is currently only studied by our research institute in East Africa. It is different from all varieties of rice widely grown in East Africa."
Kaird asked: "Is it a newly introduced variety from the Far East?"
"No." He Bo shook his head, and then said seriously: "This kind of rice has a lot of history, Ande The reason why Professor Lie attaches so much importance to this kind of rice is that we call it West African cultivated rice. The biggest feature is that West African cultivated rice comes from West Africa, not Asia. "
As we all know, East Africa is a region. In countries that mainly cultivate rice, rice planting area exceeds that of many crops and has become the largest staple food in East Africa. Almost all rice varieties currently grown in East Africa are imported from Asia.
Andre heard the exchange between the two students. At this time, he said in a sincere way: "He Bo is right. We collected these rice from thirteen locations in West Africa, and it broke our previous understanding of rice types." Cognition. ”
“In the past, all rice varieties in our country were imported from Asia, especially the Far Eastern Empire. At the same time, due to insufficient early research and cognition, as well as a lack of foreign exchanges, the mainstream of our country’s agriculture at that time Think Africa has no native land type rice variety."
"But in 1897, during an overseas agricultural species collection activity organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, our researchers first discovered this native African rice cultivated by local black people in the Niger River Basin of West Africa. Varieties. ”
Except for wild short-tongued wild rice, most of these rice species collected from West Africa are fū rice, or African rice species, which correspond to Asian Rice Seeds of the Far Eastern Empire. Andre continued: "We have demonstrated through research that the light-tongued rice in West Africa may be derived from the wild short-tongued wild rice. The two have many similarities. The light-tongued rice retains many of the original ancestral characteristics of the short-tongued wild rice. ”
"However, this native African rice variety cannot be compared with Asian rice in terms of yield due to various reasons, and the variety is far less extensive than Asian rice. For the time being, we have only found two types of Guangye whose differences are not obvious and may differentiate in the future. Rice varieties.”
The so-called various reasons are basically that the development of black agricultural technology is too backward. Take Guangye rice and Asian rice as examples. The Far Eastern Empire began to cultivate rice artificially as early as 10,000 years ago. The history of Guangye Rice may only be two or three thousand years.
Moreover, African blacks themselves are not good at farming, which means that only a small amount of light rice is grown in the Niger River Basin, where the light rice comes from, and the methods are very crude. In the absence of artificial selection, the yield of light rice is naturally difficult to achieve. Compete with Asian rice.
The yield of Asian rice currently grown in East Africa is generally over 170 kilograms, and has even reached a record of 432 kilograms in experimental fields.
The yield of the Guangye rice experimental field is only 75 kilograms, and the gap between the two is very obvious. Without various high-quality conditions and careful care of the Luanda Agricultural Research Institute, the yield would be even lower.
So Kelder raised his own question: "Professor Andre, since the yield of this rice is much lower than the Asian rice currently grown in our country, what is the significance of our studying it?"
For students Professor Andre was not dissatisfied with the question, but said quite complacently: "For our agricultural research From a scientific point of view, it is indeed important to increase the yield of species and select and breed excellent varieties, but what is a good variety is much more complicated. Take Guangye rice as an example. I knew before planting that this rice variety has a low yield. So I have been mentally prepared for it.”
“Then what do I like? The answer is Guangye Rice. Other characteristics, as a local rice variety cultivated by black people in West Africa, light field rice is most likely to have evolved from short-tongued wild rice."
"So light field rice is naturally suitable for the climate of West Africa. Characteristics, if you have good geographical knowledge, you should know that the climate in West Africa is similar to that of many areas in East Africa. , that is, the savanna climate type.”
“And as a continent, West Africa is basically the same as my country in terms of species evolution and diversity, which involves the long-term cultivation of light rice on the African continent. Develop stronger resistance to local pests and diseases and climate. ”
He Bo continued to ask: "But how should the research on this variety be transformed into practical application results!"
Andre said: "The problems you are concerned about do exist, but I can tell you something The knowledge that is not accessible at university is rice hybrid technology. This technology is to obtain the advantages of two rice species by crossing them, thereby cultivating a more advantageous rice variety. Currently, Mbeya City The Rice Research Center has already produced preliminary results.”
“If the hybrid rice technology of Mbeya Rice Research Center achieves a breakthrough, then our light rice will no longer be useless. Hybrid technology can be used to combine the advantages of light rice with other rice varieties, and transfer the advantages of light rice to new rice varieties. "
" Light rice is drought-resistant and resistant to some local diseases and insect pests. The characteristics can be applied to my country's rice production in the future. "
East Africa is actually the center of the world's rice research field. Among the world's powerful countries, only two countries in East Africa and Japan use rice as their staple food.
Compared with East Africa, Japan is already relatively backward, and Japan has been expanding its military force crazily in recent years, making it unable to concentrate on other fields. Therefore, East Africa has become the most developed country in the world in research on rice planting technology.
Hybrid rice is one of the key agricultural research projects in East Africa at the current stage. However, hybrid rice research requires time, location, people and people, and it is difficult to produce results in a short period of time. Research on hybrid rice projects in East Africa has only begun. In the 1990s, it has only been more than ten years now.
This was carried out under the "insignificant" guidance of Ernst's scientific undertakings in East Africa based on the memories left by biology in high school in his previous life. However, the hard work paid off. After establishing the correct research direction, East Africa Mu Beia Rice Research Center was the first to succeed.
(End of this chapter)