Chapter 466: The Power of Technology
Suez Branch.
Qattara Lake Agricultural Area.
Li Qingye was at the lakeside city of Lake Qattara - Silat Port.
Thanks to the Homo Sapiens Company's digging of the Northern Canal between the Mediterranean Sea and the Qattara Depression, two huge canals with a width of 550 meters and a depth of 35 meters brought huge amounts of Mediterranean water into the Qattara Depression.
After nearly two years of continuous injection, the entire Qattara Depression was completely submerged, forming a saltwater lake with an area of 18,000 square kilometers, which is the Qattara Lake in front of Li Qingye.
This huge lake, with an area of 18,000 square kilometers and an average depth of 62 meters, holds 1 trillion cubic meters of sea water. And because it is directly connected to the Mediterranean Sea, Lake Qattara will basically never dry up.
Li Qingye stood on the 500-meter-high Syrat Radio Tower and looked down at the surroundings. The scenery that came into view was, apart from the blue sea and sky, endless green fields.
"Mr. Chairman, with our efforts, the Numidia Desert will become the granary of North Africa." As the general manager of the Numidia branch, Hu Mingliang was next to Li Qingye at this time.
"The terrain here is very flat, so there should be a lot of area that can be used for agriculture, right?"
"Yes, the Suez Matruh Province and the northeastern part of Numidia are a 600,000 square kilometer plain desert area with an altitude of less than 200 meters. All of them can be transformed into seawater farms."
"Are they all growing rice?" Li Qingye hasn't learned much about the agricultural industries of the various branches recently.
Hu Mingliang shook his head: "No, the climate here is suitable for wheat. We use genetic modification technology to insert the root gene of sea rice into the wheat gene, and also the perennial gene."
"In other words, you plan to plant genetically modified wheat on these 600,000 square kilometers of plains?"
"Yes, but not all of it. Only about 300,000 square kilometers are planted."
"That's a lot, after all, it's 450 million mu. By the way, can this genetically modified wheat be harvested once a year?"
Hu Mingliang quickly replied, "It is two harvests a year, Chairman. Because of the perennial gene, genetically modified wheat can be seamlessly connected, so it can achieve one season of winter wheat and one season of spring wheat."
"How's the yield?" Li Qingye picked up the telescope and looked at the lush wheat fields in the distance.
"The annual yield per mu is about 850 kilograms. If all deserts are transformed, it is estimated that 300,000 square kilometers can achieve an annual wheat output of 382.5 million tons."
Li Qingye is quite satisfied with this production capacity.
After all, the Homo sapiens company now has 2.6 billion employees, and this number is still rising year by year. Assuming an average of 500 kilograms of food per person per year, at least 1.3 billion tons of food is needed.
The agricultural potential of the Southeast Asia and South Asia regional branches has been almost fully exploited. If they continue to develop land, they will need to build terraces and cut down large amounts of forests.
Therefore, the current agricultural development direction of Sapiens Company is to focus on genetically modified seawater crops on the one hand, and indoor lightless farms on the other.
The Sahara Desert in North Africa is a large agricultural area that the Sapiens Company focuses on developing. After all, the low-altitude desert here is very suitable for large-scale mechanized production.
Genetically modified technology has given crops the ability to tolerate salt and alkali, allowing them to be grown directly in seawater, thus solving North Africa's inherent disadvantage of lacking fresh water resources.
When seawater can replace fresh water for agricultural use, the agricultural potential in North Africa will be increased dozens of times.
Right at this moment.
Woo woo woo…
A burst of urgent whistle sounded from the direction of the port.
Li Qingye turned the telescope and found a cruise ship approaching the port.
"Is there a shortage of manpower in Matruh Province?"
"Yes, at present, there are only 3.52 million employees in the Matrouh Secondary Branch. We are working with the Human Resources Department to transfer personnel from the Nile Delta and Cairo."
Li Qingye nodded slightly: "More than three million is indeed too little, ten million is more reasonable."
"We have enough staff here, but the Numidia branch is even more short of staff." Hu Mingliang felt helpless.
"How far has the northern canal between Numidia and Suez been built?"
Hu Mingliang took out a tablet and projected a construction progress map.
"We have already opened up the northern plains of Numidia, with the westernmost point being the port of Hassanchi."
Li Qingye looked at the route map and found that the northern line of the Northern Canal was almost completed.
If the canal is to be dug further westward, one will encounter the Nafusa Mountains and the Hamra Desert, whose average altitude is over 500 meters. Continuing westward, one will reach the Republic of Abd Wad. Therefore, the northern line of the Northern Canal does not need to be dug further westward at this stage.
From the canal progress map provided by Hu Mingliang, it can be seen that the Numidia branch has no intention of continuing westward, but is digging the middle and southern lines of the northern canal.
The middle line of the northern canal runs westward from Lake Qattara, passing through the southern Numidian Desert, Tazirb Oasis, Sabha Oasis, Obari Desert, and finally arriving at the border city of Atshan.
The southern line of the northern canal goes south from the Tajirb Oasis, passes through the Rabyana Desert and the Kufra Oasis in turn, enters the operating area of the Chad branch , passes through the Lake Ounianga ruins area, the Bodre Depression, the El Ghazal Wadi area, and finally arrives at the city of N'Djamena.
This large-scale construction is a huge boost to the entire northeastern region of the Sahara Desert.
Why are the Chad branch and the Meroe branch developing at the slowest speed among all the branches?
The reason is that the transportation and infrastructure are extremely backward.
The Chad branch, in particular, was extremely poor, with no railways or canals, and even few decent roads. It was located inland, surrounded by either a vast desert or equally poor areas.
Therefore, the southern line of the Northern Canal is a vital lifeline for the Chad branch.
Fortunately, the Ceylon Ocean Transport Group, a subsidiary of the Sapiens Company, has recently put into service hundreds of large transport airships. 50% of these transport airships have basically been deployed to the Chad branch and the Meroe branch.
It is thanks to the use of this large transport airship that the Chad branch's economy has barely improved and no longer requires long-term transfusions from the head office.
"Mingliang, your Numidia branch needs to give more support to the Chad branch."
Hu Mingliang nodded quickly: "I will strengthen cooperation with them."
The reason why Li Qingye gave such an order was because he planned to set up some important industries and scientific research bases in the hinterland of the Sahara region.
The location he chose was the northern part of the Darfur Plateau between Suez, Meroe, Chad and Numidia.
This place is surrounded by desert and is a plateau itself. The local population is sparse, making it very suitable for setting up secret bases and conducting some relatively dangerous special experiments.
He had always wanted to carry out a special project but had no suitable place. This time, he finally had a large enough experimental area.
Therefore, he had to develop several surrounding branches in order to support the material consumption of that project.
He came all the way to North Africa not just to inspect the industry, but for something more important.
After inspecting the area around Qattarahu for more than a week, Li Qingye, escorted by the aerospace fleet, headed westward into the operating area of the Numidia branch.
At the same time, the project that Li Qingye was secretly preparing in the Darfur Plateau was also undergoing initial preparations.
