What happened to the guy who broke with tradition and spent $300 million trying to grow rice in the desert?

While most of us live in modern cities and travel through buildings, I believe many of us yearn for the desert landscapes of martial arts novels. In a lot of film and literature, the desert is the seat of the frontier, is the carrier of countless heroic stories, so it seems, the boundless desert is not only a mysterious place in our hearts, but also a lot of writers are able to compile stories of inspiration. But put into the field of environmental protection point of view, to prevent desertification is an important issue, countless scientists are in this dedication of their youth and blood, so that the ecological structure of our country continue to optimize, so that the desert through the governance into an oasis.

Dreams of turning deserts into granaries

The Ant Forest in mobile Alipay is a desert protection project opened by Ali Group, aiming to stimulate the desert greening project with consumption through the continuous efforts of netizens. Planting trees to keep the desert from eroding the land has long been a common practice. However, there are only a limited number of species of trees that can grow in deserts, and only drought-tolerant plants can survive in desert environments. But can you imagine that in the 1990s, Inner Mongolia had an incredible program to grow rice in the desert. As we all know, rice is an aquatic plant, and even some of the land in the north is difficult to meet the water-rich planting environment, not to mention the desert. But in 2013, a young man named Tengfei led a team of researchers to realize the plan of growing rice in the desert.

Magical Horqin reappears as an oasis

The only desert where rice can be grown is the Horqin Desert, which used to be an oasis a long time ago, but because of the passage of years and the ever-increasing severity of desertification, the place has been green for a long time. Although it is said that the yellow sand is rolling now, but under the yellow sand of the Horqin Desert actually contains rich water resources, which is the high quality conditions under which rice can grow. After a series of rigorous scientific research, the Tengfei team found that the area of Horqin suitable for growing rice reached 30,000 mu. After laying down this condition, the research team carried out a series of scientific research actions in the desert, such as building sand and wind barriers next to the rice fields, and using the means of covering to reduce water evaporation. From 500 acres of test field to now almost 30,000 acres will be planted full, Tengfei team continues to get scientific research juzi, so that this great cause can be continued.

The role model of the desert test field

While it is said that most of us have now solved the problem of food and clothing, but in the places we can not see, many inhabitants of the earth with poor living conditions are still facing the problem of not having enough food. In China, in fact, the amount of food imported every year is also very huge, because there is no condition to plant large quantities of production, so still need to import. The successful practice of growing rice in the desert by the Tengfei team has a chance to relieve the food pressure in some areas after large-scale promotion. Looking at the world, but also to the people of other desert areas for rice cultivation provides an important scientific basis and reference value, more and more people have the opportunity to eat "desert rice".

Cultivating while governing

It has been said before that planting green plants in the desert is the best means to prevent desertification. Tengfei's success not only reflects the practical courage of young people who dare to be the first, but also represents the positive effect that the progress of China's scientific and technological strength can bring to people's lives. Some people even call Tengfei and his team Yuan Longping's second, which also recognizes the contribution of this young research team to the people. With the continuous development of the experimental field, in fact, also in the unimproved desert area environment to provide a strong condition, at present part of China's desert has been slowly turned into an oasis, back to the old style. At the same time, many countries have also begun to follow our example to carry out such scientific experiments, I believe that in the near future, the earth will be more and more green.