Chapter 386 - 183: Inducement

Chapter 386: Chapter 183: Inducement

"...I declare the signing ceremony for the Hailufeng Company’s Kerchin Desert Comprehensive Development Project a complete success!"

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP...

A high school auditorium in Zhelimu City had been temporarily repurposed as the venue for the press conference. The hall was now filled with thunderous, unceasing applause.

The lovely host picked up her microphone and said with a smile, "Now, let’s have the General Manager of Hailufeng Company, Mr. Liu Zhiben, come to the stage to speak. Please give him a round of applause!"

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP...

Amidst the fervent applause, Liu Zhiben walked onstage with calm composure and took the microphone from a staff member.

He stood at the podium, tapped the microphone, then turned to the media and invited guests. "I am very grateful for this hard-won partnership. Hailufeng Company’s development project in the Kerchin Desert will be fully implemented within the next five years."

"General Manager Liu," the host interjected, handing him a list of questions, "the reporters in the audience raised a number of questions earlier and are hoping for a response from your company. Here they are."

"Of course. As long as they don’t involve corporate secrets, I can answer them," Liu Zhiben said with a smile, accepting the stack of note cards. He glanced at the first one, then looked up.

"The first question is from a reporter at the *Heart-stopping Report*: Will Immortal Soybeans cause environmental problems? My answer is that the application of *any* technology will cause problems. The only way to avoid that is for humanity to disappear from the Earth."

Ha ha ha... A few people chuckled, bowing their heads to hide their amusement.

Liu Zhiben continued, "As we use Immortal Soybeans to transform these deserts and sandy lands, we are of course mindful of local environmental issues. For instance, the Kerchin Desert, the Hunshandake Desert, the Maowusu Desert, and the Wulanbuhe Desert were all grasslands and oases thousands of years ago. Transforming them into farmland and pastures will not cause environmental problems."

"As for areas that were historically deserts, such as the Tengger Desert, the Badan Jiling Desert, and the Taklamakan Desert, we will be more cautious in considering the scope and scale of reclamation. However, I personally believe that even transforming the Tengger and Badan Jiling Deserts wouldn’t cause any major issues."

A murmur of discussion immediately broke out among the reporters below the stage.

Liu Zhiben explained with a smile, "Perhaps you all find my statement to be less than rigorous. But everyone is overlooking one crucial fact: this is a balancing act. The area of desert and sandy lands belonging to our neighbors in the North is increasing by the day, and desertification in the Central Asia Region is also growing more severe. Therefore, I don’t believe that reclaiming a few hundred thousand square kilometers of desert within our own country will have any serious consequences for the Earth’s climate."

Many in the audience had a moment of realization.

Thinking it over, they had to admit that Liu Zhiben had a point.

From the broader perspective of Northern Asia, desertification in the Northern Desert and the Central Asia Region was indeed growing increasingly severe.

According to reports, in 2017, desertified land in the Desert North Region accounted for just 50.7% of its total territory. By 2020, that proportion had risen to 76.9%, with severely desertified land making up 23.3% of the total.

The Northern Desert covers an area of 1.56 million square kilometers, meaning that nearly 460,000 square kilometers of new desertified land had appeared in just a few years.

The situation in the Central Asia Region was no more optimistic. According to a report by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, land degradation in Central Asia affected approximately 80 million hectares, or over 20% of the region’s total area.

In other words, even if Cyrus were to reclaim all of its deserts and sandy lands, it would only be enough to break even with the newly formed desert areas in the Central Asia Region and the Desert North Region.

Although the country would never push for such an extreme reclamation plan, reclaiming the vast majority of the deserts and sandy lands in Monan, plus nearly a third of those in the Western Regions, should still not pose a significant problem.

"The second question is from a *Global Times* reporter. It’s about Immortal Soybeans being susceptible to root rot fungus, and asks if this can be addressed through genetic modification."

Liu Zhiben shook his head with a smile. "I’m not a technical expert, but our boss has said that using genetic modification to make Immortal Soybeans resistant to root rot is extremely difficult. Fungi are highly adaptable to their environment and mutate very quickly. Even if we developed a resistant strain, it would only offer protection for a limited time."

The reporters below quickly typed the answer into their laptops.

"The third question is from a reporter with the Monan Daily, regarding our company’s industrial plans for the Kerchin Desert." Liu Zhiben took a sip from a bottle of water before continuing.

"Our company’s future plans for the Kerchin Desert involve the cultivation of soybeans, alfalfa, corn, pasture grass, cherries, Pistachios, and Hevea Plants, along with the development of related support industries."

The host cut in, "General Manager Liu, can cherries and Pistachios be grown in Monan as well?"

"Yes, they can, but it requires improved varieties or special techniques. The specifics are a corporate secret, so I’m afraid I can’t elaborate."

"Of course," the host said, ceding the floor back to Liu Zhiben.

"The fourth question is from a BBC reporter: Will Hailufeng Company transfer its technology for free to impoverished regions around the world?" Liu Zhiben shook his head with a smile. "Whether we transfer the technology is a decision that requires our company’s evaluation. For regions that haven’t even fully adopted modern agricultural techniques, I suggest they focus on modernizing their agriculture first. They shouldn’t bite off more than they can chew."

The BBC reporter, however, stood up abruptly and shouted, "Mr. Liu, I believe the Tianzhu region has the infrastructure to adopt your Immortal Soybean technology! That region has a massive population suffering from hunger and poverty. If you were to transfer the technology for free, you could save hundreds of millions of poor and hungry people."