Chapter 30 Project Site Selection
Long Province, provincial government conference room.

The meeting was chaired by Executive Senior Official Li Changlin.
Preliminary discussions were held on issues such as the drafting of an investment agreement for Alfalfa Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd.'s 20-acre saline-alkali land improvement project.

Alfalfa Agriculture Co., Ltd. was named by Guo Yang. It is the main body of the saline-alkali land improvement project with a registered capital of 5 million yuan.

"Mu" means forage grass, but in addition to that, it can also represent alfalfa. The super alfalfa that Guo Yang obtained from the seed store was also named "Alfalfa No. 1".

"禾" represents rice and wheat, and also symbolizes grain, implying that alfalfa will sooner or later enter the field of grain seeds.

After arriving in Lanzhou, Guo Yang asked Zhang Wei to go to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau under the guidance of provincial government staff to handle various procedures such as company registration.

Due to the huge investment amount, the project has attracted great attention from the entire Long Province government.

Even though Zhang Wei was a novice, with the full assistance of the relevant office of the Provincial Department of Agriculture responsible for the introduction of investment projects, the relevant registration and various procedures of "Alfalfa Agriculture" were completed with extremely high efficiency.

During this process, the Provincial Party Committee urgently established a leading working group, headed by Executive Senior Official Li Changlin and with Director Yan of the Provincial Department of Agriculture as deputy group leader, to be fully responsible for the drafting of the Alfalfa Agriculture Investment Agreement and the coordination of subsequent work.

The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the formulation of an investment agreement, which involves the site selection of the project and the supporting policies and funds of various departments.

However, since the news was not deliberately blocked, the news that Alfalfa Agriculture had invested a huge amount of money in the project to improve saline-alkali land spread quickly in all districts, cities and counties across the province in advance.

So the Eight Immortals crossed the sea, each showing their magical powers, and the leaders of the district and county governments began to become active.

As an investment owner, Guo Yang was the first target of everyone, and they promised Guo Yang various policy support conditions.

The meeting began in this context.

In addition to the Provincial Department of Agriculture, Department of Natural Resources, Department of Transportation, Department of Water Resources and other departments, Dr. Zhou, a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture's Planning and Design Institute, also participated in the meeting.

Soon after the meeting started, it was Director Yan's turn to introduce. He pointed at the map and said:
"Mr. Guo, we initially recommend that you select the project sites in Yongdeng, Huining, Gulang and other counties. These places have certain irrigation conditions, the difficulty of managing saline-alkali land is relatively lower, and they are also suitable for the cultivation of high-quality forage grass."

After some consideration, Mr. Yan recommended an area with better conditions to Muhe.

If they think from the perspective of promoting local development and helping the people to become rich and prosperous, they should introduce alfalfa to poorer counties and districts.

But the current difficulties of Huihuang Seed Industry have made them hesitate.

The investor behind Huihuang Seed Industry is from Rongcheng, Sichuan Province, and has very strong financial strength.

However, in the process of building the forage seed base demonstration area, there was a deviation in the cost estimate of improving saline-alkali land.

This has resulted in temporary difficulties in its operations.

On the other side, Guo Yang looked for the area selected by Director Yan on the map and frowned.

The Agriculture Department has selected several areas, but we have not yet visited them on site.

But when Guo Yang saw the location of the land and listened to Director Yan's introduction, he knew that they had indeed put a lot of thought into it.

The land recommended by Director Yan are all in districts and counties with better irrigation conditions.

If it is from the perspective of normal business development, there is no problem.

But Guo Yang came here to accumulate natural energy!
What he needs are lands that are difficult to improve, because only in this way can the effect of ecological restoration be obvious.

The accumulated natural energy will make you more optimistic.

Li Changlin saw that the sponsor was silent and thought that Guo Yang was dissatisfied. So he asked: "Is there anything Mr. Guo is not satisfied with? You can also raise any requests, and our province will definitely find a way to solve it."

Other departments also agreed that they would cooperate with the province to provide good services to Alfalfa Company.

They couldn't help but be nervous. Although the financial sponsor chose to invest in Long Province, it did not mean that things would not change.

Their Long Province is only one of the five largest pastoral areas in the country, and neighboring Inner Mongolia and Qinghai Province are eyeing them covetously.

Moreover, they have also made preparations to take advantage of the investment and construction momentum of Alfalfa Company to improve the infrastructure construction in related areas.

Guo Yang looked at the serious-looking leaders of various government departments. Perhaps this was the best time for them to speak.

Smiling, Guo Yang said, "The land recommended by Director Yan and others are all good land."

Director Yan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Guo Yang continued, "But I don't need this kind of slightly salinized farmland. I need farmland or wasteland that is at least moderately or severely salinized."

When they heard Guo Yang's request, everyone who came to the meeting was a little dumbfounded.

Dr. Zhou from the Planning and Design Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture looked even more uncomfortable. He and Guo Yang had already communicated in advance before coming to the meeting.

When he first heard Guo Yang's request, he was also incredulous, and then he tried to persuade Guo Yang many times.

But now it seems that all these efforts have been in vain.

Guo Yang continued, "Director Yan, can you tell me about the distribution of salinization in Long Province, especially those areas with moderate and severe salinization?"

According to the soil salt content, saline-alkali land can be divided into mild, moderate and severe saline-alkali land. Generally, the soil salt content of mild saline-alkali land is less than 0.3%, that of moderate saline-alkali land is 0.3%-0.6%, and that of severe saline-alkali land is higher than 0.6%.

Generally speaking, slightly saline-alkali land still has high utilization value and can be appropriately used to develop agriculture and animal husbandry.

However, in saline-alkali lands with moderate or severe saline-alkali content, most seeds have difficulty germinating, and in severe cases, not even a blade of grass will grow.

When Director Yan heard Guo Yang's request, he looked puzzled, but since the sponsor had made the request, he could only follow Guo Yang's instructions.

"Currently, there are about 2110 million mu of saline-alkali land in our province, including more than 1600 million mu of saline-alkali wasteland and more than 480 million mu of saline-alkali arable land, mainly distributed in 15 counties and cities, including Minqin County, Jinta County, and Gulang County."

"Among the 480 million mu of saline-alkali farmland, there are 240 million mu of lightly saline-alkali farmland, 175 million mu of moderately saline-alkali farmland, and 75 mu of heavily saline-alkali farmland."

"Heavily saline-alkali farmland is mainly concentrated in Dunhuang City, Gansu Agricultural Reclamation, Jinta County, Minqin County, Subei County, Aksai and other counties."

"At the same time, as the degree of salinization intensifies, the associated ecological problems such as soil sandification and desertification are becoming increasingly prominent, and the agricultural ecological environment is deteriorating sharply."

"Due to the large area and wide range of saline-alkali land, the soil salt content varies, and there is a lack of unified planning and systematic development and utilization plans, and the scientific research results have not been fully utilized and promoted."

"At present, the management of saline-alkali land is still at the stage of spontaneous action by the masses, with individual investment from farmers, sporadic development, and abandonment after planting, so it will not form a large scale in the long run."

Guo Yang listened quietly to Director Yan's introduction and watched him circle the counties one by one on the map.

The dense markings made his scalp tingle.

The five northwestern provinces seem vast in area, but not an inch of land is redundant.

(End of this chapter)