3、The Wheat Field That Could Change the World - TED

可能改变世界的麦田 - TED

What you see over there is
你在那里看到的是

elite modern-day wheat lines
精英现代小麦品系

that have a special ability to produce
，它们具有从根系产生大量抗生素的特殊能力

large amounts of antibiotics

from the root systems.
。

You may be wondering,
您可能想知道，

why do we need antibiotics from the wheat root systems?
为什么我们需要来自小麦根系的抗生素？

You only take antibiotics when you are sick, isn't it?
你只有生病的时候才吃抗生素，不是吗？

The agricultural systems,
农业系统

the modern farming systems have become
，现代农业系统最近变得

increasingly sick lately.
越来越病态。

They are so sick that nearly 70 percent of the nitrogen fertilizers
他们病得很重，

that are being applied to farmlands
以至于施用于农田的氮肥中有近 70%

are being leaked out.
都被泄漏了。

They're leaking nitrogen uncontrollably.
他们无法控制地泄漏氮气。

If you look at the nitrogen fertilizer consumption
如果你看看绿色革命开始时的氮肥消耗量

from the beginning of the Green Revolution,
，

it has grown nearly 30 fold.
它已经增长了近 30 倍。

From five million metric tons
从绿色革命

at the beginning of the Green Revolution,
开始时的

to 150 million metric tons,
500 万吨，

what we are currently using.
到我们目前使用的 1.5 亿吨。

A 30-fold increase in nitrogen fertilizer consumption
氮肥消耗量增加 30 倍

has resulted in a four-fold increase in global food grain production.
导致全球粮食产量增加 4 倍。

Of course, we all know
当然，我们都

that the Green Revolution has transformed the global food grain production,
知道绿色革命改变了全球粮食生产方式，

saved us from famine,
使我们免于饥荒和

food scarcities,
粮食短缺，

and provided the global food security.
并提供了全球粮食安全。

But you have to ask yourself.
但你必须问问你自己。

A 30-fold increase in nitrogen fertilizer consumption
氮肥消耗量增加 30 倍

is supporting only four-fold increase in food grain production.
仅支持粮食产量增加 4 倍。

What's happening?
发生了什么？

When you apply nitrogen fertilizers,
当你施用氮肥时，

it is mostly in ammonium form.
它主要以铵的形式存在。

Ammonium form binds the soil, doesn't move.
铵形式结合土壤，不移动。

Doesn't create any harmful nitrogen byproducts.
不会产生任何有害的氮副产品。

There's no problem with ammonium nitrogen.
铵态氮没有问题。

But there is a little bacteria, lives in the soil,
但是有一种小细菌，生活在土壤中

that started eating away this fertilizer, nitrogen ammonium,
，开始吃掉这种肥料，氮铵，

and spitting it out into nitrate.
并将其吐出成硝酸盐。

And also it's making many other
它还会产生许多其他

harmful nitrogen byproducts.
有害的氮副产品。

The problem with the nitrates is,
硝酸盐的问题是，

though many plants can use nitrates as a nitrogen source,
虽然许多植物可以使用硝酸盐作为氮源，

but nitrogen cannot bind to the soil.
但氮不能与土壤结合。

It washes out.
它洗掉了。

If you have rain, if you have irrigation,
如果你下雨，如果你有灌溉，

it washes out from the farmlands.
它就会从农田里冲走。

That is the problem.
那就是问题所在。

This little bacteria [that] used to be a small,
这种小细菌 [that]曾经是土壤生物活动中的一种小型、受

subdued microbial activity in the soil biological activity,
抑制的微生物活动，

has grown now into a monster.
现在已经成长为一个怪物。

It's consuming nearly 95 to 99 percent of the fertilizer nitrogen
它消耗了将近 95% 到 99% 的肥料氮

and splitting it out into nitrates.
并将其分解成硝酸盐。

We should be asking,
我们应该问，我们是在给

are we fertilizing our crops,
庄稼施肥，

or are we fertilizing this little bacteria
还是在给

which we have helped to grow into a big monster?
我们帮助长成大怪物的小细菌施肥？

This is what happens when the nitrogen moves into water streams,
当氮进入水流、

pollutes lakes,
污染湖泊、

triggers algal blooms
引发藻类大量繁殖

and creates another Green Revolution.
并引发另一场绿色革命时，就会发生这种情况。

If you don't keep the nitrogen in farmlands,
如果你不把氮留在农田里，

if you allow it to move into the water bodies,
如果你让它进入水体，

to the larger ecosystem,
进入更大的生态系统，

it creates another Green Revolution in a ecologically destructive way.
它就会以破坏生态的方式引发另一场绿色革命。

If you look at the soil,
如果你观察土壤，

it's a living biological system.
它就是一个活的生物系统。

An invisible microbial world.
一个看不见的微生物世界。 在这些土壤系统中

There's a large microbial universe operating in these soil systems.
有一个庞大的微生物世界在运作。

They are involved in numerous functions,
它们参与多种功能，

breaking down everything into individual components,
将一切分解成单独的成分，

nourishing our crops to grow and produce food.
滋养我们的农作物以生长和生产食物。

It's so complex.
太复杂了。

It's much, much bigger than the ecosystem that we know,
它比我们所知道的生态系统、我们所知道的地面以上的生态系统要大得多

the ecosystem above the ground that we know.
。

It's much more complex.
它要复杂得多。

Just to give you an example,
举个例子，

a gram of soil would have about 10 billion microbial cells.
一克土壤大约有 100 亿个微生物细胞。

Ten billion microbes in a gram of soil, doing various functions.
一克土壤中有 100 亿个微生物，发挥着各种作用。

It's much larger than the entire human population,
它比

what you see on Earth.
你在地球上看到的总人口要多得多。 从绿色革命的最后七年开始，

This microbial universe is affected,
这个微生物世界受到了影响

affected so severely,
，影响如此严重

from the last seven decades of the Green Revolution.
。

Particularly,
特别是

the infusion of large amounts of nitrogen fertilizers
，注入大量氮肥会

caused disruption to this microbial activity
破坏这种微生物活动

and changed the population dynamics.
并改变种群动态。

As I said, what used to be a small,
正如我所说，曾经在土壤中

insignificant microbial activity in the soil
微不足道的微生物活动

has grown into a monstrous proportion,
已经发展到一个巨大的比例，

sucking up all the fertilizer nitrogen [that] we are applying.
吸收了我们正在施用的所有肥料氮。

Nature has evolved many solutions
大自然

to some of the problems we are facing in agriculture
为我们在农业中面临的

and some of the problems we are going to create
一些问题以及我们将

and face in the future.
在未来创造和面临的一些问题提供了许多解决方案。

What you see over there is a Brachiaria tropical pasture grass.
你在那边看到的是一种臂形热带牧草。

It grows extensively in South America.
它在南美洲广泛生长。

It has a unique ability.
它具有独特的能力。

It produces large amounts of antibiotics from the root systems.
它从根系产生大量抗生素。

These antibiotics are specifically directed to this little bacteria,
这些抗生素专门针对这种小细菌，

we say the nitrifying bacteria.
我们称之为硝化细菌。

Because of that, it tightly controls
因此，它严格控制

this nitrifying bacteria function in the soil.
着土壤中硝化细菌的功能。

It doesn't allow it to function.
它不允许它运行。

It doesn't kill that bacteria,
它不会杀死细菌，

but it doesn’t allow it to function,
但不会让它发挥作用，

just [keeps] them in a kind of coma state.
只是 [保持] 它们处于一种昏迷状态。

Because of that,
正因为如此，

you don't see any kind of nitrate formation
你在这些热带牧场上看不到任何硝酸盐的形成

in these tropical pastures.
。

In particular, this tropical pasture grass.
特别是这种热带牧草。

And also, you don’t see any nitrogen gas emitted from these pastures.
而且，您看不到这些牧场排放出任何氮气。 这些牧场

No nitrous oxide is emitted from these pastures
不会排放一氧化二氮，

because it controls these bacteria so tightly
因为它

by producing large amounts of antibiotics from the root systems.
通过从根系产生大量抗生素来如此严密地控制这些细菌。

The question is,
问题是，

how do we bring this kind of ability into our crop lands?
我们如何将这种能力带入我们的农田？

Most of our food production comes from four crops:
我们的大部分粮食生产来自四种作物：

Wheat, maize, rice and sorghum.
小麦、玉米、水稻和高粱。

These are the four crop that provide the global food security.
这些是提供全球粮食安全的四种作物。

Almost 80 to 90 percent of the food grains are produced from these four crops.
几乎 80% 到 90% 的粮食都产自这四种作物。

And also ... more than 90 percent
而且……工业生产

of the entire nitrogen fertilizer produced industrially
的全部氮肥的 90% 以上

goes to these four production systems.
都用于这四个生产系统。

These food crops, the staple crops,
这些粮食作物，主要农作物，

don't have much ability.
没有多少能力。

That's the reason they are leaking.
这就是他们泄漏的原因。

So, if you look at this, you see the wild wheat.
所以，如果你看这个，你就会看到野生小麦。

It has the ability to produce 20 to 30 times antibiotics
它有能力从根系产生20 到 30 倍的抗生素

from the root systems.
。

Our group has worked for the last 15 years
在过去的 15 年里，我们的团队一直致力于寻找

to try and locate the genomic region

responsible for producing these antibiotics
负责产生这些抗生素

and transfer to the cultivated wheat.
并将其转移到栽培小麦中的基因组区域。

We have done it.
我们已经做到了。

You see that the orange,
你看到橙色，

orange is here part of the chromosome that is coming from the wild wheat,
橙色是来自野生小麦的染色体的一部分，

which is coding the antibiotics.
它正在编码抗生素。

We have got that integrated to the wheat genome
我们已经将其整合到小麦基因组中，

without disrupting the elite [agronomic] architecture of the wheat system,
而不会破坏小麦系统的优良[农艺]结构

and also without disrupting the yield potential
，也不会破坏产量潜力

and without interfering with the bread-making quality of the wheat.
，也不会影响小麦的面包制作质量。

This new category of wheats we call BNI-wheats,
我们将这种新型小麦称为 BNI 小麦，

the wheats that can produce large amounts of antibiotics
这种小麦可以从根系产生大量抗生素

from the root systems

to control this bacteria
来控制这种细菌，

so that they can control the nitrate production in the root systems.
从而控制根系中硝酸盐的产生。

Because of this,
因此

the nitrogen fertilizer, whatever we are applying,
，无论我们施用什么，氮肥

would stay in the [root-zone], doesn’t leak.
都会留在[根区]，不会泄漏。

Look at the the BNI wheats, well, it looks quite healthy and green.
看看 BNI 小麦，嗯，它看起来非常健康和绿色。

You see the right side,
你看右边，

that is the current modern wheats,
那是目前的现代小麦

which leaks out all the nitrogen, whatever we have applied.
，无论我们使用什么，它都会泄漏出所有的氮。

Both the plants were applied the same amount of nitrogen
两种植物在完全相同的时间施用相同量的氮

at exactly the same time.
。

In one case, it leaked out.
在一种情况下，它泄漏了。

In the other case, it remained in the farmland.
在另一种情况下，它留在农田里。

These are the BNI wheats.
这些是 BNI 小麦。

These are the next generation wheats under development.
这些是正在开发的下一代小麦。

So in a few years from now,
因此，从现在开始的几年内，

they will be available to the farmers.
它们将提供给农民。

So our hope is, in the next 10 years,
所以我们希望，在接下来的 10 年里，

most of the wheats that are grown in different parts of the world
世界上不同地区种植的大多数小麦

would have this kind of ability
都具有这种能力，

so that the nitrogen leakage can be stopped
从而可以

by infusing these large amounts of antibiotics
通过从根系注入大量抗生素来阻止氮泄漏

from the root systems.
。

That’s what is going to control --
这就是要控制

that’s what is going to reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer in future ...
的东西——这就是未来要减少氮肥用量的东西……

in wheat root systems.
在小麦根系中。

Thank you.
谢谢你。

(Applause)
（掌声）