I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 496 - 494: The Significance of Ecological Greenhouses

The ecological greenhouse at the Research Center is not the same as traditional greenhouses and differs significantly from the pre-disaster ecological greenhouses.

Traditionally, greenhouses are mainly used to increase temperature, artificially altering the growing environment for crops.

Although pre-disaster ecological greenhouses had some differences, they were essentially used for the same purpose, albeit with more comprehensive functions.

Chen Xin remembers from the information he found that there were even ecological greenhouses with built-in solar panels that used solar power to provide energy, fully utilizing natural resources to increase crop yields inside the greenhouse.

But now this is no longer possible.

The most fundamental difference between the newly built greenhouses after the disaster, including the national ones, and those of the past, lies in the walls.

Traditional greenhouses are mostly constructed with transparent films, which are low-cost and easy to maintain, using grass quilts or insulation blankets to keep warm. In the past environment, this was indeed sufficient and provided enough insulation.

However, maintaining temperature in environments tens of degrees below zero is beyond what traditional greenhouses can achieve. Even the past ecological greenhouses, with building materials at most using acrylic or transparent plastics, did not significantly surpass in insulation performance.

The greenhouse at the Research Center has high-performance insulation materials as the sandwich for the walls, with low-temperature-resistant metal on the outer layer and composite materials on the inner layer. This three-layer structure can resist the severe cold outside and prevent the loss of internal temperature and moisture.

Since there is no sunlight outside, the current ecological greenhouses do not consider transparency, but rather focus on minimizing escape to conserve energy.

Besides the differences in construction, the bigger difference is inside.

Various technologies such as soil-free cultivation, vertical planting, and ecological agriculture breeding have been adopted. This upgrades the original flat planting area to a three-dimensional planting system, creating a cycle among different crops and forming an organic whole.

With continuous supplementation of light, warmth, and water, the ecological greenhouse at the Research Center, though not claiming endless cultivation, will certainly last without issues for at least ten to twenty years.

The target anticipated by Professor Li’s research team is to avoid cyclic problems for fifty years, ensuring the ecological greenhouse can operate normally for fifty years without needing to replace crops, aside from mechanical maintenance.

As for the maintenance of the ecological greenhouse, full mechanization has been achieved with Chen Xin’s help.

Mechanical harvesting, sowing, irrigation, feeding... Every part of the ecological agricultural system that required human labor has been replaced by mechanical operations under Chen Xin’s direction, making everything automated.

In fact, the ecological greenhouse at the Research Center is fully automated. Once the planting mode and ecological system are set, and the original crop seeds and animal breeds are provided, along with light, temperature, and water supply, the entire ecological greenhouse can operate by itself.

What Professor Li and his team are striving for—fifty years without problems—refers to the ecological greenhouse being able to operate on its own without issues for fifty years, except for mechanical failures.

To achieve this goal, Professor Li and his team have carefully selected every crop seed.

They do not choose those high-yield but genetically unstable seeds developed by humans. Instead, they select seeds with stable traits that can be sown continuously without significant yield reduction.

They have also conducted detailed research on the ecological interdependency between crops, which has allowed them to build the current fully automated ecological greenhouse at the Research Center.

The animals in the ecological greenhouse have been optimized using the equipment Chen Xin used for breeding genetically modified wolf dogs, leading to excellent breeds of traditional livestock.

However, animals are still very different from plants, and they need special care.

Although the automatic machinery of the ecological greenhouse can provide them with essential water and food, humans are needed to address issues like disease.

Undoubtedly, this already has the flavor of automated agriculture seen in science fiction novels.

The ecological greenhouse, infused with the hard work of Professor Li and Chen Xin, did not disappoint them. It not only continues to maintain itself but also produces a steady stream of fruits and vegetables every month, along with a large amount of grain crops and agricultural products like eggs, milk, and meat.

According to calculations by Chen Xin and Professor Li, such a greenhouse can sustain at least 3-5 people per acre.

Don’t think this number is low. In the traditional agricultural model, if you only grow rice on an acre of land, with two seasons per year and 1,000 catties of rice per season, yielding 500-600 catties of rice, it barely meets the rice needs of two to three people annually.

But people cannot survive on rice alone without eating vegetables and other meats.

So theoretically, to sustain one person and meet their dietary needs, relying solely on one acre of traditionally cultivated land is simply insufficient.

The ecological greenhouse offers a completely different solution.

First, the ecological greenhouse, capable of vertical planting and ecological agriculture breeding, can effectively transform a single acre into several acres, greatly increasing crop yields. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Moreover, the ecological system built within the greenhouse enables the production of a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, eggs, milk, meat, and other agricultural and sideline products, through poultry and livestock farming.

The diverse types of food, especially the presence of meat, significantly reduce the human reliance on single types of grains.

So, in terms of how many people can be sustained by an acre of land, the ecological greenhouse is undoubtedly a clear winner.

However, accordingly, the maintenance cost of the ecological greenhouse has increased significantly.

In the traditional farming method, one person can manage all work on an acre of land.

But for an ecological greenhouse, if not for the fully automated machinery provided by Chen Xin, relying entirely on human labor, three to five people might not be enough to maintain an ecological greenhouse for an acre, and they need to possess enough knowledge to handle various issues.

Although the initial cost is higher, the ecological greenhouse is a huge boon for the current situation in Flame Country.

For Flame Country today, the human labor needed to maintain an ecological greenhouse is secondary; obtaining higher food output is the primary concern.

In the apocalyptic times, human labor may be cheap, but food is extremely valuable.

It is precisely for this reason that the high-ranking officials of Flame Country place exceptional emphasis on ecological greenhouses and plan to build new ones following this model in various regions to produce more food.