"Volcano Agriculture" became popular! Technology helps create new formats
◎ Science and Technology Daily reporter Wang Yanbin
Take a bite, and the juicy, sandy, and sweet watermelon is beautiful to my heart.
This watermelon is not grown on ordinary soil, but grown on volcanic soil.
Volcanic soil grows sweet watermelon?
This is not all.
In Changle, a small city in central Shandong, where the Volcano National Geological Park is located, the rich volcanic soil produces not only crispy watermelons, but also high-quality agricultural products such as millet and small pumpkins.
The volcano erupted and the fire blazed into the sky. The 1300-degree lava spewed out like hot molten steel and destroyed everything...In people's impression, the volcano is the window of the hot earth's core, the most explosive force on the earth.
When volcanoes and high-quality agricultural products were previously inaccessible to the world, the super IP "volcano agriculture" with its own super-net celebrity temperament came to the world in a causal relationship.
In October, Liu Jiaqi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, traveled a long way and rushed to the site of the first China Volcano Agriculture Summit in advance.
In Changle, this knowledgeable expert on volcano geology was deeply impressed by the local "volcano agriculture" visits and surveys: I have been doing volcano research all my life, but the scenes happening here show that volcanoes can serve the economy, which makes people excited .
This excitement is what Professor Bai Zhida of the School of Earth Sciences and Resources of China University of Geosciences (Beijing) wants to express: The development of high-quality agriculture in volcanic soil is shocking.
The famous expert on volcanic geology even asserted, "The proposal of Changle Volcano agriculture is a pioneering work in China's agricultural geology."
What is volcanic agriculture?
How can it achieve sustainable development?
How can advanced technologies such as AI and big data intervene in volcanic agriculture?
Can Changle's exploration be copied?
Many academicians, professors and experts have discussed this.
Sapphire
Starting from Jinan, head east along the Jinan-Qingdao Expressway, about 200 kilometers later, enter Changle.
Many people have heard about this place, probably starting from "China's Sapphire Capital" and "China's Watermelon Town".
But here is another hidden business card-Shandong Changle Volcano National Geopark approved by the Ministry of Land and Resources.
What many people don’t know is that after being identified as a national natural heritage by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, this volcanic national geopark became the third national natural heritage in Shandong Province after China’s Mount Tai and Jinan’s famous springs.
The conical crater with a depth of more than 20 meters and a diameter of 60 meters, tens of thousands of six-sided stone pillars, from the bottom to the top of the mountain, straight into the sky... Li Shuanke, the president of National Geographic magazine, is not the first time to visit Changle.
In his opinion, during the surging volcanic eruption thousands of years ago, at the moment the hot magma touched the earth, some lava and oxygen reacted chemically under high temperature and high pressure conditions to form two oxides. Aluminum, also known as sapphire.
From the discovery of the first sapphire here, this ordinary land has instantly become a new continent for treasure hunters, because every piece of soil and rock here may contain a value of hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. The sapphire worth 10,000 yuan is worthy of the name "China's Sapphire Capital".
When the reporter from Science and Technology Daily arrived there, it was the opening of the China (Changle) International Gem Fair. Nearly 200 brand jewelry exhibitors from across the country came here with all kinds of gold, silver, and jade jewelry, crystal clear beautiful colors, life-like peculiar shapes... …All this left a deep impression on the reporter.
There are two sides to everything.
On the one hand, the volcanic eruption destroyed everything, on the other hand, it is also giving birth to life.
Looking around the world, in Japan, the volcanic soil of Mount Fuji is suitable for planting mulberry trees and the sericulture industry is developed; in Europe, the Vesuvius region is rich in grapes and produces red wine with a long aftertaste.
It is precisely because of the "dual nature" of volcanoes that Academician Liu Jiaqi of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences issued a call for "developing volcanic resources and developing volcanic economy" in Changle.
The "secret" on the tip of the tongue
Located in Shandong, "the nation's largest watermelon-growing province", the Changle watermelon with the label of "early maturing, thin skin, crunchy and sweet" is delicious.
The person in charge of the Changle County Agriculture Bureau told the reporter of the Science and Technology Daily that watermelon, as the county’s first pillar industry of agriculture, has an annual output value of more than 2.4 billion yuan. It is a national geographical indication protected agricultural product and has ranked first in the national watermelon brand value for 11 consecutive years. .
In addition to the taste and brand value winning the championship, people do not know that this kind of taste is closely related to soil quality and technology.
The extraordinary workmanship of nature has created an extremely rare volcanic resource in Changle. There are nearly a hundred ancient volcanoes, large and small, within a range of nearly 100 square kilometers.
Professor Bai Zhida of the School of Earth Sciences and Resources of China University of Geosciences (Beijing) believes that the unique volcanic soil here is rich in iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, sulfur, silicon and other trace elements. The rich combination provides incomparable agricultural products. nutrition.
From a scientific point of view, Academician Liu Jiaqi believes that the original volcanic ash and volcanic rocks here are weathered and turned into soil, becoming an indispensable part of nurturing local agricultural products.
Of course, water, sunlight, temperature, etc. are also indispensable.
For a long time, the diligent and simple Changle farmers rely on the unique volcanic soil to produce delicious agricultural products including volcanic watermelon and volcanic millet.
Of course, located in Weifang, which is good at creating agricultural development models, Changle people are good at combining high-tech with volcanic agriculture to nurture different agricultural forms.
The new position of "Academician of Watermelon"
In the Watermelon Science and Technology Demonstration Park located in the southwest of the county seat, visitors sighed "unexpectedly".
There are various types of watermelons here, including the fist-big "apple watermelon", the pocket-sized "thumb watermelon", and the characteristic watermelon with yellow skin and red flesh. The watermelon here is not lying long, but standing long, standing upright. Long; the watermelons here live in the "sun room", play "air conditioning", sleep in "hammocks"...
Xu Yong, the chief expert of the national western melon industry technology system, told reporters: This should be the largest production area of western melon production in the protected area of our country in the northern region. Regardless of scale, efficiency or production technology, it represents the highest level in the country.
The emergence of "the highest level" represents the potential of volcanic agriculture.
As the academician said, volcanic geology provides unique conditions for the breeding of high-quality agriculture, but technology is also essential.
Here, the "Shandong Provincial Academician Workstation" was established with Wu Mingzhu, the only academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in the melon industry in China, and the facility western melon variety R&D center was established with the Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the National Vegetable Engineering Technology Research Center, Bayer, etc. Well-known institutes and enterprises cooperate to introduce new varieties, new models, experiment with new technologies and new results, and inject new vitality into "volcanic agriculture".
"The unique volcanic soil geology, specific topography, geography and suitable climatic conditions, coupled with traditional experience and modern technology have bred high-quality'volcanic agricultural products'." Professor Bai Zhida of China University of Geosciences (Beijing) expressed his expectation: Exploration and practice can pave a way for the development of China's volcanic agriculture.
Source: The picture in the Science and Technology Daily article is provided by the author