Chapter 254 (1/2)
Zhang Wei knows nothing about the current situation of global food. Therefore, he can only make up for the relevant knowledge and know how much more food production is needed each year to protect China from food crisis.
When he gave an order, Xiaolan, the intelligent assistant, displayed the information he wanted to know on the virtual stereoscopic screen.
After careful study for a while, Zhang Wei finally got a preliminary understanding of the current situation of grain in China and other countries.
The world's annual food production is less than 2.5 billion tons, 1.4 billion Chinese consume 700 million tons, 300 million Americans consume 300 million tons, 700 million people in Europe consume 400 million tons, and the other 4.5 billion people consume 1.1 billion tons.
From these data, we can see that there are many people starving in the world, and a report released by the FAO and the world food programme also points out that the global hunger population has reached a record 1 billion, more than half of which are children. According to statistics, 18000 children die of hunger and malnutrition every day, most of them in Africa, which is hard to say In the 21st century, this is a tragedy of imagination.
Of course, this has a lot to do with Africans themselves. They can't support too many children, but they prefer to have children. In the past, many children died because of the backward medical technology. Now with the development of medical technology, the life expectancy in Africa has been greatly extended, which makes Africa facing the population explosion, the 40 countries with the highest fertility rate in the world, 38 of which are in Africa Zhou! According to a new UNICEF study, by 2100, there will be 4.2 billion people in Africa, and almost half of the world's children under the age of 18 will come from Africa, currently only a quarter of them.
Africa is facing a population explosion, and China is about to enter the space age. A large number of scientists are needed. They have decided to fully liberalize the family planning policy. In the future, the population will inevitably continue to increase, and the food consumed will naturally increase, so where do these excessive food come from? Is it totally dependent on imports?
It is important to know that the global grain trade volume is 200-300 million tons per year. Even if all these grains are purchased, they can only meet 40% of China's current grain demand. If China really buys so much food, the price of food will surely skyrocket, and China must pay a huge price. And if we rely on imports completely, it means that we have handed over the lifeblood of our country to other countries, which is quite a dangerous act. As long as other countries pinch our food supply a little, we will be soft immediately. Why? Food is never broken overnight.
Therefore, food should still be self-sufficient. Even if we want to import, we should have the courage to face the worst situation: ”even if they don't sell to us, we can still survive by relying on our own food production, at most, we can only eat less meat.” In fact, the country has been doing so for many years, and has been insisting on the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land.
After knowing the current situation of the food problem, Zhang Wei felt a little startled. At the same time, he felt that the problem really needed to be solved urgently. The whole country is about to enter the space age. In the future, a large number of scientists are needed, so scientists can't go hungry. In the future, if we want to carry out interstellar colonization, we must need a large number of people. These people also need to consume a lot of food. There is not enough food. Everything is empty talk.
So, how to make crops increase production? How to develop more cultivated land?
As for the first question, it is natural to cultivate high-yield crops. In fact, the space plants that science and technology companies are actively studying in the future belong to this kind of research. Genetically modified crops are actually a way, but it will take a long time to verify whether they will cause harm to human beings. The domestic people are also highly resistant.
As for the second problem, there are actually two ways. The first is to cultivate crops that can adapt to the harsh environment, such as rice that can fully adapt to the saline and alkaline land. The total area of saline alkali land in China is about 1.5 billion mu. If rice can be planted, the annual grain yield will be 450 billion jin, which is equivalent to about 37% of the national grain yield in 2013. In fact, China has made some progress in this regard.