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Potato Project ( ChinaDaily)
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-23 16:44
DINGXI – The potato, known as "foreign yam" in Chinese, was once planted in China as a life-saving food to survive famines.
But as China moves towards being the center of potato production in Asia, the humble potato is now bringing wealth to some in western China who had been living in poverty.
Chen Chunlan, a potato farmer in Dingxi in northwest China’s Gansu province, now lives a satisfying life in her newly-built, well-furnished home.
Chen credits her potato fields for the improved standard of living — they provide her with an annual income of 70,000 yuan ($10,400).
But Chen clearly recalls the hard times not long ago, when local peasants often had to worry about their next meal.
"We used to grow wheat, but the meager harvest could barely feed us, let alone allow us to save some money," said Chen.
In 2001, destitution even forced Chen to flee Dingxi to try to earn a living in another place.
Dingxi, with its cold and arid climate and hence low agricultural yield, has long been listed as one of China’s poorest regions.
In 1995, a severe drought hit Dingxi, and almost everything in the fields withered. But to the locals’ surprise, the potatoes survived the catastrophe.
"Potatoes are amazingly drought-resistant and can acclimatize well to Dingxi’s agricultural conditions," explained Wang Yihang, the provincial potato expert.
Next year, the Dingxi government launched the "Potato Project" to popularize the cultivation of potatoes to guarantee basic food supply.
Dingxi grows more potatoes than any other city in China, boasting over 200,000 hectares of potato fields, or one third of the city’s arable land.
Thanks to the edible tuber, the city no longer has a food supply problem, and attention has shifted to making the "food of the poor" a major export.
"Some freshly harvested potatoes are transported to wholesale markets all over China on special trains, while others are processed in local plants," said Yang Zixing, party secretary of Dingxi city, referring to the city’s 20 large factories that turn the smaller, unsuited-for-sale potatoes into starch or potato chips. Previously, these potatoes would have been discarded or used for pig feed.
Some companies have struck deals with Simplot, McDonald’s french-fries supplier, to grow and process high-quality potatoes.
The city’s potato-processing factories are the source for 25 percent of the local farmers’ income.
Dingxi’s success story suggests a bright future for potato cultivation in China, as cultivation of the tiny tuber rapidly expands into China’s western regions.
"Over 4.7 million hectares of arable land in China are now growing potatoes, up from 2.7 million in the 1980s," said Wang.
"Most of the increased potato cultivation is in China’s poor western regions — the provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi and Qinghai, and the Ningxia Hui autonomous region."
The potato has proven to be more suitable than rice and wheat for cultivation on western China’s arid, barren lands, playing a major role in relieving starvation in these regions.
Furthermore, surging demand for potato products like starch can galvanize these less-developed regions to quickly industrialize.
"Potatoes can be made into materials or ingredients that are needed in food processing, papermaking, pharmaceuticals, textiles and many other industries," said Wang.
And although in China potatoes are traditionally not a staple food as they are in many other parts of the world, it is nevertheless an integral part of Chinese cuisine.
Potato-based snacks are also becoming popular in China, especially after western fast food giants like McDonald’s and KFC began selling french fries.
Given the market potential and adaptability to arid areas, the potato may well be a new industrial star in China’s west.
Schlumberger Water Services Launches AquiferTest Pro 2010(SLB Press)
Expert Hydrogeological Software Designed for Pumping Test and Slug Test Data Analysis
WATERLOO, Canada, September 10, 2010—Schlumberger Water Services (SWS) announced today the release of AquiferTest Pro* v.2010 pumping test and slug test data analysis software. This latest release provides more reliable curve fitting techniques and an expanded set of well and aquifer testing solutions that will dramatically improve the way hydrogeologists, environmental consultants and government agencies estimate hydraulic properties of aquifer systems.
AquiferTest Pro v.2010 offers “one-click” display of type curves and manual edits with the mouse that allows users full control to accurately match time-drawdown data, saving time and improving the quality of the analysis. A suite of derivative smoothing methods allows for easier identification of the aquifer properties, well effects and boundary conditions, ensuring that the most appropriate solution method is selected for the test. It is now possible to conduct a more rigorous assessment of hydraulic properties under unique conditions such as horizontal pumping wells, well skin effects and slug tests in high conductivity formations. The improved Neuman analysis for unconfined aquifers showed a 90 times1 increase in performance over the previous versions.
“This release is built for hydrogeologists specializing in the estimation of aquifer properties and numerical modeling of the hydrogeologic environment,” said Martin Draeger, marketing manager, SWS. “Groundwater models require input values for hydraulic conductivity and storativity, often derived from pumping test and slug test analysis. With the improvements to curve-fitting techniques and derivative analysis in AquiferTest Pro, this will lead to more accurate estimates of these aquifer parameters, which provides for more confidence in the values assigned to the numerical model.”
Visit www.swstechnology.com/software to download a trial.
About Schlumberger Water Services
Schlumberger is the world’s leading supplier of technology, integrated project management, and information solutions to customers working in the oil and gas industry worldwide. Employing approximately 105,000 people representing over 140 nationalities and working in approximately 80 countries, Schlumberger provides the industry’s widest range of products and services from exploration to production.
Schlumberger Water Services, a water-centric group within Schlumberger, operates globally and specializes in the development, management, and environmental protection of water resources. Leveraging experience and proprietary subsurface characterization technologies, Schlumberger Water Services offers mining, power, oil and gas, and public sector clients with the decision-making framework for addressing short and long-term water challenges. For more information, visitwww.water.slb.com.
Schlumberger Limited has principal offices in Paris, Houston, and The Hague and reported consolidated revenues of $22.7 billion in 2009.
http://www.slb.com/en/news/press_releases/2010/2010_0910_swsaquiferpro.aspx
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It’s amazing.
Quote of the day
Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
E.O.Wilson: Alien Invaders, Ant plague, biodiversity
“The homogenization of the biosphere is painful and costly to our own species and will become more so. If we are to stem it, we will have to learn more about biodiversity and what is happening to that most precious natural resources. Let us think upon what we and the other aliens are doing to the rest of life, and to ourselves.”
— E.O.Wilson, The Creation
Collapse: Based on the Book by Jared Diamond: Technology, Fossil Fuel
As we use and abandon technologies of the past at a record pace, will humans live in a future full of tech-trash?
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/satellite/satelliteEmbedPlayer.swf
Collapse: Based on the book by Jared Diamond – water, energy, food
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/satellite/satelliteEmbedPlayer.swf
If humans don’t make changes in how we grow food, our species could be headed towards extinction.
Read more:
Insects
“People need insects to survive, but insects do not need us. If all humankind were to disappear tomorrow, it is unlikely that a single insect species would go extinct, except three forms of human body and head lice. Even then there would remain gorilla lice, closely related to human parasites and available to carry on at least something close to the ancient line. In two or three centuries, with humans gone, the ecosystems of the world would regenerate back to the rich state of near-equilibrium that existed then thousand or so years ago, minus of course the many species that we have pushed into extinction.”
“But if insects were to vanish, the terrestrial environment would soon collapse into chaos.
… … "
— E.O.Wilson, The Creation
The Creation – E.O.Wilson on Investing
… …
“History now teaches a different lesson, but only to those who will listen. Even if the rest of life is counted of no value beyond the satisfaction of human bodily needs, the obliteration of Nature is a dangerous strategy. For one thing, we have become a species specialized to eat the seeds of four kinds of grass — wheat, rice, corn, millet. If these fail, from disease or climate change, we too shall fail. Some fifty thousand wild plant species (many of which face extinction) offer alternative food sources. If one insists on being thoroughly practical about the matter, allowing these and the rest of wild species to exist should be considered part of a portfolio of long-term investment. Even the most recalcitrant people must come to view conservation as simple prudence in the management of Earth’s natural economy. Yet few have begun to think that way at all.”
— E.O.Wilson, The Creation
E.O. Wilson
Edward O. Wilson is University Research Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator of Entomology at Harvard University. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on ants. As a writer (more than 20 books, including "The Diversity of Life," "Biophilia," "Naturalist," and "The Creation"), ecologist, and environmentalist, his work has had a profound impact on the public understanding of biodiversity loss and humanity’s role in the planet’s ecosystem. Prof. Wilson is the recipient of the National Medal of Science, the International Prize for Biology, the gold medal of the World Wildlife Fund, the Distinguished Humanist Award from the American Humanist Association, and the Crafoord Prize from the Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Peter Day: Chips Off The Old Block
Once upon a time, British computing led the world. In a mobile world, some people think it might be happening again. From Bletchley Park to Bristol, Peter Day reports on the past, present and future of computers UK.
Just listened this podcast in my iTunes podcast, it is really striking to know that the original technology of IT is from UK, but flourished in US, why? As one of the interviewer described it :
"The US government throw a lot of money on the 50th, on developing IT, we didn’t”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tmv7j#synopsis
Who will lead the ET then? what do you get from this story?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/worldbiz
Thanks Peter, you did it again, awesome indeed.
Thomas L.Friedman – get out of Facebook~
… …
But when is? if the Re-Generation really wants to have an impact, it has to get those million people on the Mall — or find a moral and political equivalent — not to listen to bands but to tell the politicians that they are ready for a serious price signal. And they have to do it without a Pearl Harbor or a 9/11. For starters, that requires understanding how the energy game is played and focusing pressure on the key factors. That means learning how Congress works, how campaign finance gets done, how utilities get rate increases, and how major firms lobby the government. Exxon Mobil, Peabody Energy, and General Motors know the difference between a Facebook group and a blocking coalition in Congress. They are not on Facebook, but they are in the faces of those lawmakers who stand in their way. When their interests are threatened, they are not in the chat room blogging about it; they are in the cloakroom twisting arms and buying votes. If the Re-Generation wants to play in this game, it has to get out of Facebook and into somebody’s face. It needs to get out of the chat room and into the cloakroom, where the rules get written. The people who run and benefit from the Dirty Fuels System do not attend Earth Day concerts.
—— Thomas L. Friedman, ‘Hot, Flat and Crowded’.
A Way Of Life 