Chapter 333 Response
Jiahe is no stranger to snow disasters, as it encounters this situation every year in the northwest.

Last year and the year before, Qinghe, far away in Altay, suffered heavy snowfall consecutively.

The year before last, because the herders were still in a semi-nomadic state, they had no fixed place to live and insufficient fodder reserves, resulting in heavy losses in livestock.

The situation was much better last year. The fodder produced from Qinghe’s 200 million mu of Gobi Desert helped the herders survive the crisis.

This year we are even more prepared.

However, Guo Yang still asked the group office to issue a document to prevent snow disasters.

In addition, all employees must receive emergency training so that they know how to save themselves and each other when faced with snowstorms.

If it is found that the requirements are not followed, this year's employee planned dividends will be deducted.

But even so, Guo Yang was worried that many people were taking chances, so he sent another message to Ning Xiaojing.

"Notify the leaders of each company to hold a video conference the day after tomorrow, and all employees will attend."

"Received." Ning Xiaojing replied immediately.

Within the group, various disaster prevention measures can still be enforced by his will.

But outside the group, words are useless and we can only do our best.

After thinking about it, Guo Yang called Lu Yilin at the Municipal Agriculture and Forestry Bureau.

"Director Lu, the weather has been a bit abnormal recently, with too much snowfall. Can the city's meteorological bureau do some agricultural meteorological monitoring and analysis?"

Lu Yilin said, "Hasn't the city already issued a notice on disaster prevention and mitigation?"

Guo Yang read the documents issued by the city and found that they were all clichés and short-term forecasts, which would not be of much use.

Guo Yang pondered and said, "Is there a more accurate and long-term forecast?"

Lu Yilin couldn't help but complain: "How many times out of 10 are the local weather forecasts accurate?"

"..."

Lu Yilin continued: “Let alone doing a good job of agricultural meteorological analysis based on the local crop growth environment and conditions, simple weather forecasts are sometimes effective and sometimes not.”

"..."

Could you please not be so blunt?

Guo Yang paused for a moment and said, "Hasn't Fengyun-2D been officially in use for half a year?"

Currently, my country has three meteorological satellites in orbit: Fengyun-3D and Fengyun-C and D.

It is the third country in the world to achieve "in-orbit backup and binary satellite observation".

A cloud map can be obtained every 15 minutes and distributed in real time to more than 2400 meteorological stations across the country.

Jiuquan can naturally also receive satellite cloud images.

Lu Yilin said: "There are magic weapons, but the people who use them are not good enough. The city's meteorological department makes forecasts based on experience. Hi, it's hard to describe their level."

"Mr. Guo, don't count on the city's resources."

Guo Yang was just trying his luck, but he didn't expect the result to be so bad.

But at least I did gain something. I found out about the management structure of the meteorological system. I didn't expect much from the provincial level and could just rely on the national level.

China Meteorological Administration—Department of Emergency Disaster Reduction and Public Service—Agricultural Meteorology Division.

"Who should I call?"

After thinking for a while, Guo Yang called Lu Qi at the Desertification Institute. The scientific expedition team had previously used the resources of the National Meteorological Administration.

After several twists and turns, Guo Yang finally contacted Ren Shuzhong, director of the Agricultural Meteorological Department.

"Hello, Director Ren, I am Guo Yang from Jiahe Group."

Ren Shuzhong's tone was full of officialdom. "Hello, Mr. Guo, Director Lu told me that this year there have indeed been frequent climate disasters, which have caused great trouble to agricultural production."

"Experts in the bureau believe that this is closely related to the El Nino and La Nina effects. The bureau will also remain highly alert to the recent climate anomalies you reported."

Guo Yang said: "Okay, I'll trouble you guys with the follow-up."

After the call ended, Guo Yang frowned even deeper. This was obviously the official answer, and it didn't seem to be taken seriously enough!
As for agricultural meteorology, he had taken courses on the subject before, but that knowledge was simply not enough.

Not to mention explaining the causes of the snowstorm.

I searched for information online and racked my brain, but still had no idea, but I found a lot of other information.

Climate disasters have been severe around the world in the past two years.

Last year, North America suffered a large-scale snowstorm, and the recent New Orleans hurricane was also not predicted by the US Meteorological Department, resulting in heavy losses.

There are both droughts and heavy rains in the country in summer, and El Niño and La Niña phenomena alternately control the western Pacific region.

"El Niño...La Niña..." Guo Yang kept repeating these two climate phenomena.

La Niña refers to the phenomenon of abnormally cold sea surface temperatures in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific, while El Niño is just the opposite.

When El Niño occurs, warm winters are more likely to occur in northern my country; when La Niña occurs, cold winters are more likely.

Since it is a snowstorm, it must be a cold winter.

Going back further, one of the impacts of the La Niña phenomenon is that it causes cold winters in East Asia.

Suddenly, Guo Yang had an idea. He started by investigating the La Niña phenomenon. The snow disaster must be closely related to La Niña.

Domestic and foreign satellite cloud images and other meteorological data are basically shared by all countries, so it is not difficult to find such information.

After being busy for most of the day, Guo Yang finally made an important discovery.

The La Niña phenomenon has appeared since the third quarter of this year with a high frequency. It is predicted that this phenomenon will continue until the second or third quarter of next year.

This phenomenon causes abnormal meridian circulation in East Asia, which is very conducive to the southward movement of cold air from the north.

Seeing this, Guo Yang was very sure that the La Niña phenomenon was one of the reasons, but the Meteorological Bureau also had this information.

There must be other reasons for the snowstorm, but they have not been discovered yet through satellite remote sensing.

Guo Yang murmured, "I have reminded everyone I should have, and the rest I can only deal with as the situation dictates."

The main purpose of doing this kind of thing is to have a clear conscience, and Guo Yang has never thought of changing completely.

Two days later, at Jiahe's video conference, Guo Yang made targeted deployments for each company and once again emphasized the seriousness of the matter.

Breeding bases, vegetables, finished grains, vegetable oil, beef and mutton, milk, agricultural supplies, snowplows and other tools...

Each item requires people to prepare special plans.

After the meeting, Guo Yang asked Gao De to stay alone again, "You can be more active in the peripheral grain futures."

Gao De asked in surprise: "Is it short selling this time?"

Over the past year, the boss has proven his foresight and foresight in planning. He thought that if there was any unexpected event this time, the bullish market would turn around again.

Guo Yang smiled and said, "Go long, but you don't have to build a position so quickly. You can wait for a pullback before entering."

Such repeated inflows and outflows did waste some capital costs, but it was acceptable to Guo Yang as capital security was the top priority.

"Boss, is there any new news this time?"

"Well, the climate is a bit abnormal. The South American coast has been dry in the past two months, and the northern hemisphere may be affected by a cold wave after the spring, which will affect sowing."

Guo Yang paused and said, "Let's operate according to this idea first, and the pace can be slower."

"Okay." Gao De was quite excited. The profits from futures were really too huge. In comparison, the profits from grain trade were not enough.

...

Guangxi, dragon fruit orchard.

This plantation was built only this spring, with a planting area of ​​about 3000 acres.

Generally speaking, pitaya will bear fruit in the second year after planting, and the same is true for the orchard in Jiahe Fresh Supermarket.

The orchard is built on a gentle slope with a slope of 5 to 10 degrees. In the early stages of growth, green manure crops such as soybeans, purple-leaf peonies, and arrowroot peas are interplanted between the rows of pitaya.

Ji Huibing, the production manager of the park, is directing workers in the orchard to cover the tree trays and bed surfaces with harvested green manure straw, and then to carry out shallow soil cultivation.

A phone call came in.

It’s Huang En, the general manager of the orchard.

"Old Ji, finish covering this piece of land with green manure and stop immediately. The head office has a new technical notice."

Generally speaking, the head office would not interfere in technical management, but this time it issued a technical notice, which confused Ji Huibing.

"It's all right, why do you want to stop?"

Huang En said: "The big boss has personally issued an order to strengthen all aspects of cold and frost prevention and control this winter."

"Isn't covering with straw a way to prevent frost?"

"Not enough." Huang En said, "Come back soon. The headquarters has even given technical suggestions this time. You will know it when you see it."

After a while, Ji Huibing returned to the office and saw the anti-freeze recommendations issued by the headquarters.

Cover with decomposed organic fertilizer, 2000~3000 kg per mu, to enhance the plant's ability to keep warm and resist cold;
Water before freezing;
Green manure, rice straw or stalks for mulching and soil cultivation;

Use colorful strips of cloth, blankets, agricultural film sheds, etc. to keep the dragon fruit seedlings warm...

Ji Huibing raised his eyebrows and said, "Isn't this a bit too much of a fuss? It feels like putting warm clothes on the fruit trees."

"Just do it. The higher-ups asked us to report the quantity of materials and the funding plan. Old Ji, you take the lead." Huang En said, "I still have to go and promote it to the nearby growers!"

“Do you want to guide other growers?”

"Well, the headquarters predicts that there will be a large-scale frost damage this year. All subsidiaries must publicize the warning. The leprosy tree nursery has already started. Fortunately, they didn't transplant the trees this year, otherwise it would be troublesome."

Guangxi is located in the subtropical region and generally does not suffer from particularly severe frost damage. In recent years, the areas and regions affected by frost have been decreasing.

However, once a winter cold wave invades, tropical and subtropical fruit trees often suffer huge losses.

Ji Huibing recalled the severe frost in 1999, when bananas, citrus fruits, lychees, longans, mangoes, dragon fruits and other fruits suffered heavy losses.

Large areas of fruit trees were frozen to death.

So many years have passed, and some people have always forgotten these damages, but after years of immersion in the fruit industry, Ji Huibing knows that not only the fruit industry is a cycle, but climate disasters are also a cycle.

He didn't dare to delay any longer and got to work quickly.

...

Sichuan Province, Meishan Danling.

"Mr. Zhou, winter frost rarely occurs in the entire basin. Isn't the cost of the anti-freeze measures ordered by the headquarters too high?"

Zhou Shu, the general manager of the citrus orchard, knew that the cost would be very high.

All the saplings need to have their late autumn shoots pruned off, the trunks need to be covered with soil, the tree trays need to be mulched, the main trunks need to be whitewashed, and branches need to be tied together and a shed needs to be built. These anti-freeze methods are very troublesome.

Especially for tying branches and building triangular sheds, for young trees, three bamboo poles need to be inserted around the orange tree, covered with straw on the outside, and open to the south.

The next step is to water the plants before they freeze; prepare weeds, straw, stalks, and sawdust in advance, and if the temperature really drops, start fumigating immediately.

I thought this winter would be easy, but now the workload is really scary.

The time and labor costs required will also go up a level.

Zhou Shu said: "We will do as the headquarters asks." "The farmers around us will not listen to us."

"Then forget about them. The trees have frozen to death, so it's a good time to change the varieties." Zhou Shu said: "Next spring, the citrus seedlings in the nursery can be planted."

...

Shandong Province, Denong agricultural supplies headquarters.

The past year has been the peak period of expansion for Denong’s agricultural supplies.

In addition to the four provinces of Shanxi and He, where the country is based, markets in Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Shaanxi, and Anhui provinces are also being developed.

We are very busy acquiring and building distribution centers, and building and franchising agricultural supply chain stores. We hope to have more stores open in time for next year's spring farming season.

But this time, all the leaders were gathered together for a meeting to prevent snowstorms.

This made some people feel that this was an exaggeration, and they began to grumble in the conference room.

"Lao Wang, you came from Guizhou. It won't delay anything if you come back and forth. Just find someone to come to the meeting. Is it snowing in Guizhou?"

"Why isn't it snowing? We just had a snowstorm and frost disaster in 05. This time, Boss Yuan asked me to come over, so I immediately put down the work at hand."

“How many stores have been opened?”

"Well, there are only about a dozen of them. The distribution center is enough for now."

At this time, General Manager Yuan Wenwu walked into the meeting room and asked, "Have you read the documents issued by the group on preventing heavy snow and frost damage?"

Ke Sheng, the person in charge of Hubei Province, said: "Mr. Yuan, we have all read the documents and everyone is mentally prepared."

Yuan Wenwu pondered and said, "The group is worried that everyone is not paying enough attention to it, so they asked me to come up with detailed rules and implement them one by one."

"I would like to emphasize once again that all warehouses at distribution centers and warehouse sheds at agricultural supply stores must be inspected and reinforced, and tools for clearing snow must be prepared in advance. The group will conduct random inspections."

"In addition, all warehouses and sheds must be fully stocked with agricultural supplies in advance."

Many people don’t take the snow in the south seriously. It may be difficult for the heavy snow to affect the agricultural supplies industry in the south.

However, it is not difficult to inspect and reinforce the sheds and warehouses. The difficult part is to store agricultural supplies.

Ke Sheng said: "The current fertilizer prices are too high, and the market is very cautious. There is a great risk in stockpiling at this time."

The others also said one after another.

"It is still in short supply, and manufacturers are unwilling to import more raw materials for processing and production, so there is very little inventory."

"The ex-factory price of 40% sulfur-based compound fertilizer in Jiangxi Province is 2450 yuan/ton, 5% compound fertilizer is 2800 yuan, and urea is 1800 yuan/ton. If you stock up too much, you may end up with a lot later!"

"High-concentration compound fertilizers in Henan Province cost 3000 yuan per ton."

“I haven’t opened many stores yet.”

Yuan Wenwu patted the table and said, "There is no room for bargaining on the reserve of agricultural materials. What we need now is execution."

"Starting from the end of this month, each of you will lead a team to contact fertilizer resource manufacturers inside and outside the province to implement the fertilizer procurement plan."

"As for the distribution of pesticides and seeds, Tianhe, Quanwang and Alfalfa will be in place before January 1 this year."

"Agricultural supply stores that have not yet been built and can complete stocking before January can continue, while the rest are on hold."

The discussion in the meeting room resumed.

Seeds and pesticides are easy to understand. With the support of Tianhe and Quanwang, there is no need to use Denong’s funds.

But in terms of fertilizers, generally speaking, the total amount of fertilizers used for spring farming in a prefecture-level city is 2 to 3 tons.

If we calculate that Denong Agricultural Materials has a market share of one-tenth of its reserves, that would be 3000 tons.

In fact, even the newly built county-level distribution center has a storage capacity of more than this number, at least 5000 tons.

If we calculate 50 tons per province and 10 provinces, that would be 500 million tons of fertilizer.

Ke Sheng asked: "Mr. Yuan, with such a large quantity, we can't buy enough goods under the current market conditions!"

Yuan Wenwu said: "Buy as much as you can."

"Are there enough funds?"

To pay the full amount of 500 million tons, at least RMB 100 billion will be needed. Even if there is a payment period, at least RMB to billion in cash will be needed.

"Don't worry about the money. The plan is 500 million tons, but in reality, 200 million tons would be good."

Denong Agricultural Materials has been expanding its stores since the beginning of the year, and most of its businesses in the southern market were newly developed this year, so its foundation is shallow.

There are not enough chain stores, not enough store staff, and some are not even open yet.

However, after analysis and judgment, the group believes that there is indeed a risk of heavy snow this year. If things can develop as expected, the business in the south can be said to have made initial progress.

...

Jiuquan.

Ning Xiaojing handed a document to Guo Yang, "Boss, this is the winter vegetable storage plan formulated by Luo Jian."

"Well, let's put it here first."

Ning Xiaojing asked doubtfully, "Isn't this a bit too noisy? There are a lot of complaints coming from various subsidiaries."

"It's okay, don't worry about it." Guo Yang didn't even raise his head. There were plans from Fengkai, Jiahe Grain and Oil, and Huinong on the table for him to check.

After nearly two weeks of hard work, the companies responded quickly.

Especially the front-line planting bases, which responded quickly and took action immediately after the task was issued.

Now that we have just entered December, the seed production bases and soybean bases have completed the winter irrigation and deep plowing, and orchards across the country have also become busy.

Even Niu Hulin assembled several large teams to clean up the ancient river channel in the lower reaches of the Shule River that was buried by wind and sand.

Now don’t worry about how refined it is, as long as the upstream and downstream of the river are connected.

With this level of heavy snow, melting ice and snow will definitely be necessary in the spring, which is extremely beneficial for restoring the West Lake wetland.

What remains is the material reserves in various places.

Judging from the scope of the impact of the La Niña phenomenon, provinces such as Hunan and Hubei in the Yangtze River Basin are the most severely affected, followed by your province.

In his previous life, the sight of large numbers of people returning home on motorcycles during the Spring Festival left a deep impression on him.

All the supplies that these provinces can prepare have been prepared, and Fengkai’s drones will also be able to play a big role this time.

Guo Yang looked at the information attentively for a while, then looked up and saw Ning Xiaojing was still there. "Anything else?"

Ning Xiaojing asked: "Boss, are you going to cancel your trip to Hainan tomorrow?"

"Oh, yes, I almost forgot again. Don't cancel it this time. Let the crew get ready."

The purpose of going to Hainan was to see the cultivation of new varieties, but it has been postponed several times due to disaster prevention.

Guo Yang asked: "Have the Xanthoceras sorbifolia trees in the north and the Leprosy tree nurseries in the south made preventive preparations?"

"It's already been done. Both trees haven't been planted yet. Frost protection isn't difficult, but is our bioenergy forest progressing too slowly? Should we also purchase a batch of seedlings?"

This year, the concept of bioenergy is also very popular in China. Forestry departments in various parts of the north have planted a large number of energy trees in their windbreak and sand control projects.

In the south as well, governments and businesses are promoting the planting of leprosy trees.

In just one year, the country has gained nearly 10 million acres of energy trees.

In comparison, the Jiahe bioenergy forest that we cultivate and propagate by ourselves seems to be a long way off.

"Don't be impatient." Guo Yang shook his head and said, "One step faster doesn't mean every step faster. If the oil price drops sharply in two years, those who build parks now will suffer."

"What Jiahe needs to do is to lay a solid foundation, increase the yield of raw fruit, and reduce costs even further, so that it can have a competitive advantage."

Ning Xiaojing has always been in charge of the bioenergy tree sector, and Guo Yang usually doesn't ask much about it.

When it comes to producing results, corn bioenergy will definitely come faster.

Then, Guo Yang took a look at the winter vegetable storage plan written by Luo Jian for Tianhe Vegetable Trading Company.

Like Jiahe Grain and Oil, the main purpose is to make money and profit. Only profitable business can make people do better, which is understandable.

In addition, Huinong.com is mainly responsible for early warning publicity, as well as connecting production and sales locations when products are unsalable.

At the same time, Huinong.com is also responsible for connecting with the National Meteorological Center, keeping a close eye on weather trends, and responding promptly to abnormal conditions in various places.

The recent articles, posts, and technical explanation videos in the agricultural technology section have also become tips for various crops to resist cold and frost, so that those who are interested can prepare early.

In short, Guo Yang made all the preparations he could think of, hoping that these two consecutive disasters would pass quickly.

12 month 10 day.

Beijing, Agricultural Meteorological Department.

Meteorological technician Kong Qing knocked on the door of the director's office.

"Please come in."

After Kong Qing entered the room, he handed a document to Ren Shuzhong. "Director, the climate has indeed changed frequently during this period. The cold air in the Yangtze River Basin and the Jiangnan area came too early."

Ren Shuzhong raised his eyebrows, glanced at the weather data, and said, "It's just a little colder than in previous years, and winter has arrived earlier."

"But La Nina is too frequent," Kong Qing said.

"So, we'll issue a yellow cold wave warning," Ren Shuzhong said, "to remind citizens everywhere to stay warm and take precautions."

At this time, the colors of disaster warnings are blue, yellow, orange, and red according to their severity.

That is, yellow represents heavier.

The current level is basically appropriate, but Kong Qing still has a bad feeling. However, judging from the director's impartial attitude, he is unlikely to overstep the line.

It's so hard to do anything.

Two days later, a blizzard hit large areas of the Midwest and Northeastern United States.

The city of Moncton on Canada's Atlantic coast also received 165 centimeters of snow, almost four times the amount recorded in the same period last year.

Huinong.com contacted Kong Qing again, but because there were no other abnormalities in the country except the La Niña phenomenon, it still did not attract special attention.

This did not exceed Guo Yang's expectations. After all, it might still be a month before the heavy snow came.

No matter how good the warning is, it cannot be so early.

As long as we maintain this level of vigilance, someone should be able to notice once there is a new trigger!
Time passed day by day, and during this period, Guo Yang stayed in the south.

Apart from visiting the South China Seed Breeding Base at the beginning to check on the breeding status of the latest batch of seeds, the rest of the time was spent inspecting the cold wave prevention situation in various places.

Most bases and companies completed the task as required, but some people were punished as a warning to others.

The whole group was in a state of panic.

After New Year’s Day, the first batch of housing for Jiahe employees will be distributed, and Guo Yang is also preparing to return to Jiuquan.

On the way, we also went to Sichuan Province and Gannan, and inspected the schools donated by Jiahe, which were very solid.

In the end, with inexplicable emotions, Guo Yang returned to the Northwest.

On January 1, blizzard weather continued to rage across North America, causing floods to breach dams, strong winds to cut off power, and heavy snow to close roads.

Jiahe was filled with joy because they were going to divide the houses.

(End of this chapter)