Regarding Director Zhang's suggestion to let young people from ministries and commissions come to Jiagu to take the latest agricultural science and technology class, Qi Zheng was really a little tempted.

What is the purpose of his continuous consolidation of Jiagu's aura? Isn't it just to establish Jiagu's position?

In terms of the domestic political structure, the young people of these ministries have almost stood on the innermost runway, and once the opportunity is right, it may be possible to proclaim their chances.

For such a group of proud people, they all have their own thoughts about the real world, and it is very difficult for them to collectively admire something.

But don't think that their knowledge is the most advanced and cutting-edge. As far as Qi Zheng knows, many people in the ministries and commissions still have a fixed impression of agricultural high-tech on large-scale mechanization. Without seeing it with our own eyes, it is difficult to understand how far the frontiers of agricultural science and technology have evolved.

Qi Zheng didn't expect to make them collectively value Jiagu through one or two contacts, but it was worth it to brush up their sense of existence in this way and give them a clearer image of Jiagu.

So, Qi Zheng readily responded to the idea proposed by Director Zhang.

Of course, this will have to wait for Director Zhang to go back to arrange, and now he will continue to investigate the industrialization of wheat in Henan Province.

However, Qi Zheng will not accompany him later.

He Shi Shiran returned to the headquarters and called Chen Jianzhang, the boss of Jiagu Laboratory.

Qi Zheng first told him about the arrangement of the Ministry of Agriculture's intention to cooperate with Jiagu to build an "electronic map of the production and distribution of high-quality special crops in the country": "...... According to Director Zhang, the first step to improve the information on high-quality wheat is to start with Henan Province. In general, we refer to our group's dedicated rice and wheat planting map to solve the problem of information asymmetry between the production side and the processing side. ”

Chen Jianzhang doesn't care: "Technically, it's a trivial matter, but it's a little troublesome to carry out wheat census registration and statistics such as contacting and testing wheat quality, checking the harvest of high-quality special wheat, and measuring wheat yield." ”

Without Qi Zheng's explanation, Chen Jianzhang understood the benefits. Not to mention anything else, just the information such as the area, varieties, and order docking of special crops in each region that can fill the Jiagu database is worth the ticket price.

He just emphasized one point vigilantly: "Let's talk about it first, this part of the investment can't be counted in the laboratory's funds." ”

Qi Zheng smiled dumbly: "Okay, okay, look at your pick, I will ask Lao Wang to allocate a special amount of funds." ”

After explaining this matter in a few words, Qi Zheng mentioned the plan that the Ministry of Agriculture would send someone to "open his eyes".

Chen Jianzhang laughed: "Isn't this simple? Take them to the ecological unmanned farm we tested, and there are all the agricultural black technologies they want to see, precision agriculture, biological prevention and control, green circular agriculture, agricultural robots, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, etc., to ensure that they feel like they are watching a Hollywood science fiction ......blockbuster."

As far as the use of high technology to promote the overall development of agriculture is concerned, there is still a certain gap between China and developed countries, which is mainly reflected in the widespread application of large-scale automated agricultural machinery and the ability of practitioners to accept high technology. But in the most cutting-edge experiments, domestic agriculture is not to be outdone.

The ecological unmanned farm mentioned by Chen Jianzhang is a cooperation between Jiagu Laboratory and several major domestic agricultural research institutions, and it is also a testing ground for the most cutting-edge technology in various immature industries.

Entering the farm, you can see a variety of agricultural machinery in the field or stretching their arms, twisting their waists, or walking freely. Not only is there no one in the cockpit, but there are no people around, as if they are staging a "science fiction show", and those who see this scene for the first time are enough to subvert the stereotype of agriculture.

Of course, the future is very good, but in terms of the current technical level, a large number of agricultural "black technology" will continue to improve the practical application of the input-output ratio. Because humans can adjust immediately according to different environments, machines can't, and data accumulation takes longer.

Speaking of this, Chen Jianzhang took the opportunity to report another related arrangement: "13 domestic universities including Agricultural University have replied to me and agreed to jointly hold the 'Jiagu Agricultural Research Science and Technology Competition', and the first session will be officially held next year." ”

Qi Zheng was a little curious: "This is discussed?"

Chen Jianzhang complained: "The funds are all paid by us, this kind of good thing that is both famous and profitable, they probably drink too much before refusing." ”

The "Jiagu Agricultural Research Science and Technology Competition" mentioned by the two is the latest exploration planned by Jiagu to promote the sinking of talents and science and technology.

The competition is very high-pitched - inviting young agricultural scientists and top new farmers from all over the world to form teams to use advanced artificial intelligence or exquisite horticultural technology to learn and communicate, explore a way to effectively combine the world's most cutting-edge digital agricultural technology with agricultural production, form a set of replicable and generalizable models and experiences, and land them in China's major agricultural production areas.

But in fact, Qi Zheng only hopes to give full play to the advantages of the talent pool of agriculture-related universities, and effectively use the market appeal of Jiagu to arouse the interest of more young talents in agriculture - when agriculture is no longer an extensive agriculture of "watching the sky and eating", but a high-tech agriculture that "knows the sky", it is not low to become a "new type of farmer".

Regardless of whether they win the final victory or not, as long as they perform well, they will have the opportunity to receive an invitation from Jiagu Laboratory, and if they are not willing to join Jiagu, Jiagu will also provide them with scientific research guidance or financial support. For college students, this is a shortcut to join the Jiagu Group, which has an increasingly high threshold.

Of course, innovation is never easy.

And the farther a person or an enterprise goes on the road of innovation, the greater the price it will have to pay, whether explicit or implicit.

Chen Jianzhang saw that Qi Zheng was in a good mood, and handed over a document when he saw the opportunity: "Boss, this is the expenditure budget of our laboratory for next year, and I will give you a look." ”

Qi Zheng suddenly said that it was a new year, and for the laboratory, the time to reach out and ask for money had come again.

Because several key new crops have been promoted this year, Qi Zheng still recognizes the performance of the laboratory, and accepts Chen Jianzhang's budget with a smile.

When I looked down, I saw that at the end of the amount column, there was a red handwritten number: 40 billion yuan!

The smile on Qi Zheng's face froze.

He blinked, looked at the number behind him, and then silently counted the "0" three times:

40，000，000，000。

Very beautiful handwritten numbers, a long string, no matter how you look at it, it is so eye-catching.

However, the figure of "40 billion" made Qi Zheng just want to throw out the report in his hand.

In fact, in previous years, Jiagu Laboratory had applied for a larger amount of funding, but that was invested in several years. On this cheat father's report, it is clearly written "2015 funding application".

It's Qi Zheng, and his brain is down for a moment.

"Have you shown it to Lao Wang?"

Chen Jianzhang said with a harmless face: "Not yet, isn't this respecting the authority of your big boss?"

"Oh, I think you're looking at me and being a bully. Qi Zheng has already come back to his senses, and his tone is not good.

What is the current level of 40 billion yuan of scientific research funding a year?

What Qi Zheng knows is that Huawei's R&D investment this year is about 40 billion yuan, and next year seems to be a year of skyrocketing, almost a 50% increase.

But can agriculture be the same as the information technology sector?

The state does not have special statistics on agricultural science and technology inputs, so it is better to compare them horizontally.

Among the leading agricultural enterprises above the provincial level in China, 18% of the enterprises have higher R&D investment than the average, but the average R&D investment of these enterprises above the average scale is only more than 100 million yuan. Outside of Jiagu, New Hope's R&D investment in science and technology has reached 2 billion yuan, and it is already the second largest leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization in China.

Qi Zheng really wanted to ask Chen Jianzhang, what made you float like this, and applied for 20 times the amount of scientific research funds in a year?

What's more, this old fox definitely knows that if he takes this budget to the chief manager Wang Yuye first, he is afraid that he will really be "thrown" out, so he will have the idea of convincing Qi Zheng first.

Chen Jianzhang also saw that Qi Zheng wanted to hit someone, coughed, and said, "Boss, this is really not my lion's mouth......"

"Yes, you are a lion, you are clearly gluttonous. Qi Zheng seemed to be smiling.

The lab boss just didn't hear it, and said with a smile: "If it's just the expenses of our laboratory, it will definitely not be such a large amount, isn't this two more expenses?"

"The first is to cooperate with Yipin's digital agriculture ......"

The financing of the e-commerce platform is very smooth, but no matter how much financing there is, it must be subsidized to consumers within one or two years to acquire users, and at the same time encourage users to spend more money on agriculture and pay more for high-quality agricultural products.

In terms of technical support, relying on Jiagu as its largest institutional shareholder, it almost outsourced it to Jiagu Laboratory.

If you describe it as a combination of punches, it is probably like this: first-line subsidiaries such as Jiagu Agriculture help provide production standards at the planting end; Jiagu Laboratory digitally upgrades the whole link of the agricultural industry; and Yipin e-commerce platform uses big data to provide traffic support for farmers, build sales channels, and polish agricultural product brands.

Because the digital upgrade of the aggregation supply chain was originally the focus of the upgrade of the Jiagu system, Chen Jianzhang gritted his teeth and recognized this expenditure.

"Of course, it's still a small head. The real increase in expenditure is the national joint agricultural research plan. Chen Jianzhang gave a straightforward answer.

Qi Zheng was stunned for a moment.

As soon as he said that, he remembered.

After nearly two years of promotion by Jiagu and a number of agricultural research institutions and agricultural experts, the national agricultural strategy focuses on "agricultural science and technology innovation" has been officially written into the "No. 1 document" this year, which also means that the state will greatly increase agricultural research funding.

In this process, although the increased funds will basically not fall on Jiagu's head, Jiagu will benefit implicitly - a large part of the increased funding investment in scientific research direction is directly related to Jiagu's business. The breakthrough of key common core technologies will benefit the entire industry a lot. A small step in the advancement of front-end technology may solve many of the industry's problems.

Another result is that in order to better share the results of scientific research, Jiagu has to participate in part of the investment.

The AI agricultural system jointly researched with the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is from this background.

“...... Like this system, if you want to really reduce the cost from the current dry field coverage to paddy fields and facility agriculture and other application scenarios, you must continue to invest in self-developed chips, sensors and other products. You know, our laboratory does not have such capabilities, if it is not backed by the School of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, even if there is money, it will not be able to buy it. Chen Jianzhang said excitedly.

"First-class foreign agricultural production companies have established AI production models for strawberries, tomatoes, grains, etc., and ideally, producers only need to choose to increase yield/improve quality, and the system will give suggestions for adjusting the growth environment, or even automatic operation control. He sighed: "The problem is that this foreign system cannot adapt to the complex and diverse geographical environment in China, and it is difficult for foreign countries to open this set of technical models and API interfaces to China." Even if this set of software is purchased, it is 'only brains, no brain cells'. ”

He seemed to be trying to persuade Qi Zheng with overwhelming momentum, leaving no room for interjection at all: "The national investment in scientific research has increased, and many major projects have been launched in the fields of crop key gene mining, new agricultural materials, and intelligent acquisition of agricultural information......

Qi Zheng rubbed his forehead, only to feel that science fiction agriculture was not fragrant at all.

Does what Chen Jianzhang said make sense?

Makes sense.

Technological breakthroughs are made by throwing money at them.

In terms of the underlying research and development of digital agriculture, Jiagu Laboratory is not as strong as in the field of crop molecular polymerization breeding.

To be honest, Jiagu can implement the joint research plan for agricultural scientific research, firstly, it is Jiagu's strong market position, after all, no matter how advanced your results are, if you can't get effective and rapid transformation, it will be a waste of research.

The second reason is even simpler, that is, the cliché of money ability - Jiagu can afford to pay.

If you say, who in the world can spend the most money?

That must be a scientist.

Not to mention 40 billion yuan, even if it is hundreds of billions of yuan, a little wider between the fingers is not enough for a world-class laboratory to spend a year.

Who doesn't want to use better reagents and equipment, it's just that they can't afford it.

The big dogs who can help transform and promote research results are the favorites of scientific research institutions.

But that's 40 billion, not 400.

If Jiagu invests 40 billion, at least it can be exchanged for real assets, but if it is invested in the laboratory, do you dare to say that there is a real return?

What's even worse is that with the continuity of scientific research, this funding has gone up, and it is difficult to lower it later - you can't think about investing in a year and producing results.

As for how long it will take to produce results? It's an unknown.

When I think about it, my heart can't help but twitch.

Looking at the "eye-catching" laboratory boss, Qi Zheng waved his hand: "Go, go, leave the budget table, you roll the calf." I'm going to take a look at the group's finances and I'll give you an answer. ”

Looking at the expenses of this "loser", Qi Zheng decided to use the group's income data to "wash his eyes".

......