Kapitel 30: Cultivating the New Farmlands

With the situation in the abandoned city stabilizing and cooperation flourishing, the coalition turned its focus to the fertile plains they had discovered. These plains held the promise of significantly increasing their food production, but they came with their own set of challenges that needed to be overcome.

A team of experienced farmers from across the coalition was assembled and dispatched to the plains. When they arrived, they were met with a landscape overrun by thick weeds, invasive pests, and soil that had been left untended for far too long. The first order of business was to conduct a thorough assessment of the land.

They took samples of the soil and sent them back to the research center where scientists, with the help of Zhao Yi's analytical software, studied its composition. The results showed deficiencies in key nutrients and a pH imbalance that would need to be corrected if they wanted to grow healthy crops.

Based on the analysis, the coalition organized supply convoys to transport large quantities of organic matter, such as compost from their existing farms and manure from livestock they had managed to raise. They spread this across the fields to improve the soil's fertility and began the painstaking process of tilling the land by hand and with the help of the few farming tools they had been able to salvage or build.

Zhao Yi, along with the coalition's engineers, worked on developing more efficient farming equipment specifically tailored to the conditions of these new farmlands. They designed plows that could cut through the tough weed roots and harrows that would break up the soil evenly. Using 3D printing technology that had been refined over time, they were able to manufacture some of these tools on-site, albeit in limited quantities at first.

The pest problem was another major hurdle. The insects and rodents that had infested the plains were voracious and threatened to decimate any crops that were planted. The coalition's botanists and farmers brainstormed natural solutions. They identified certain plants that could act as natural repellents and started intercropping them with the food crops they intended to grow.

At the same time, they set up birdhouses and bat roosts around the edges of the fields to attract these natural predators of the pests. For the more stubborn pest species, they developed traps using simple materials like wooden planks and wire mesh, designed in a way that would capture the pests without harming the beneficial insects.

As the preparations continued, the coalition also planned the layout of the farms. They divided the plains into different sections based on the types of crops that would thrive best in each area. Zhao Yi created a digital mapping system that tracked which sections were planted with what crops, when they were sown, and when they were due for watering and harvesting. This system would send alerts to the farmers' handheld devices, ensuring that no crucial farming tasks were overlooked.

Finally, the day came to plant the first seeds. The farmers gathered, their hands full of carefully selected seeds that represented hope for a bountiful harvest. As they sowed the seeds into the freshly prepared soil, there was a sense of anticipation and nervousness in the air. Everyone knew that the success of these new farmlands was crucial for the coalition's continued growth and ability to support its expanding population.

Over the following weeks, the farmers watched over the fields with great care, watering them regularly and keeping a vigilant eye out for any signs of trouble. And slowly, the first shoots began to emerge from the ground, a sign that their hard work and determination were starting to pay off. But they knew that there was still a long way to go before they could fully reap the rewards of these new farmlands and ensure a stable food supply for the entire coalition.