My agricultural scientist friend

 My agricultural scientist friend

Farmers Daily is another year of Labor Day. On this festival, people always sing the glory and beauty of labor and pay tribute to thousands of laborers. At this time, I always think of a few friends of agricultural scientists who are laborers, cultivators and strugglers on the agricultural scientific research front. As the person in charge of the agricultural sector, the first task assigned to us by the central government is to ensure the country’s food security, especially the three staple foods of rice, wheat, and corn, so that the people across the country can eat and eat well. Therefore, I maintain a "hotline" contact with scientists in these fields. From them, they can draw wisdom and strength, but also feel responsibility and responsibility.

  (One)

　　 When it comes to scientists’ contributions to my country’s food security, people first think of Yuan Longping. This year, the world has been hit by the new ì.

The second time was in April 2013. I went to visit him at the Nanfan breeding base in Sanya, Hainan. He happily took my hand and walked up the ridge, showing me the super rice "seed players" cultivated by his team, and I jointly announced the start of the fourth phase of super rice high-yield research. It was a sunny noon.. I said: "Academician Yuan, if you have confidence, we have confidence. The'high-point attack' is difficult, and the Ministry of Agriculture will strongly support the fourth phase of super rice research." After I returned to Beijing, the Ministry made special arrangement. Two years later, the average yield per mu of the fourth phase of the super rice 100 acres reached 1026.7 kg, achieving the target ahead of schedule.

　　 It is precisely because of his outstanding contribution to national food security that Yuan Longping was awarded the "Medal of the Republic" on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. At that time, the award ceremony was held in the Great Hall of the People. The scene was unprecedentedly grand and the atmosphere was warm and solemn. General Secretary Xi Jinping personally put this heavy medal on Yuan Longping. I also attended the award ceremony and felt warm. Food is the country's most important weapon, and he deserves the highest honor in this country. I think this is the Republic’s affirmation of the contributions made by agricultural scientists represented by Yuan Longping, and it also reflects the great importance of the party and the state on food and agriculture. Before the end of last year, I held a "Southern Propagation Silicon Valley" construction meeting in Hainan, specifically to visit Yuan Longping at the South Propagation breeding base He recalled the details of the awards given by the general secretary, and the general secretary asked him, what new developments did the super rice have? He replied that he is now sprinting towards 18 tons (per hectare). The general secretary said yes! He said that this is the encouragement and spur of the general secretary to him. He wants to carry forward the spirit of the old man and let the super rice achieve the expected results. This is the third time he has told me about his new goal. Yuan Lao has just passed his 90th birthday, and he is full of energy. I joked that he was "post-80s" entering "post-90s", and he became younger and younger. Shimoda at the age of 90 is great. He watched me joking with him, and he was even more energetic: "The fourth phase of Super Rice, which we jointly launched five years ago, has made a new breakthrough. The test piece has a yield of 1,200 kg per mu, and the quality and taste are better." I wish him health and success, and make an appointment with him to harvest super rice in the coming year.

　　 Yuan Longping always has new dreams and pursuits. Although he has become famous all over the world, he still immerses himself in Tian Chou and persistently explores. I remember that in April 2018, I took the opportunity of attending a conference in Hainan to visit a scientist at the South Breeding Base and invited him to have a meal with academician Xie Huaan, a rice expert. During the dinner, he told me that their salt-tolerant rice research has made a major breakthrough, and the test yield of several varieties has reached 500 kilograms per mu. Saline-alkali-tolerant rice is commonly called "sea rice". Many people have misunderstood that rice is grown in seawater, but rice is actually grown on saline-alkali land. Yuan Longping said that our country has hundreds of millions of acres of saline-alkali land where "sea rice" can be grown. If fully utilized, it can greatly increase food production and feed more people. He wants to hold our rice bowls tighter. I also told him truthfully that the main staple foods of our country now have a slightly balanced balance of rice, basic balance of wheat, and tight balance of corn. At present, rice can meet the needs, and salt-tolerant rice can be used as a strategic reserve variety.

Many people know that Yuan Longping has a "dream of enjoying the coolness under the grass": "Rice grows as high as sorghum, the ears are as long as a broom, and the grains are as big as peanuts. My colleagues and I are tired from work and can enjoy the cool under the rice... …" I understand that this is Yuan Longping’s "Chinese Dream": the constant pursuit of high-yield, higher-yield, super-high-yield and high-quality food, to keep hunger away from the Chinese forever, and to benefit those people around the world who still can’t eat enough. This contains the spirit of responsibility of agricultural scientists in the world. Chinese hybrid rice has been planted in India, Pakistan, Southeast Asian countries and Africa, and the planting area exceeds 100 million mu. I wish him and his team continue to achieve new results.

　　 When it comes to rice production, there is one more person who can't forget Xu Yirong. I once commented: "Yuan Longping in the south, and Xu Yirong in the north." Xu Yirong, the winner of the National May 1st Labor Medal, created the "double-thousand" miracle of rice planting at 43 degrees -53 degrees north latitude: the rice planting area exceeds 10 million acres. The average yield per mu is over 1,000 catties. Planting rice in high-cold latitudes and continuously increasing yields are rare in the world. I am from the Northeast, and I know the difficulty of growing rice in the Northeast and the difficulty of eating rice in the past. This high-cold area was once a "forbidden area" for rice. Back then, after the September 18th Incident, the Japanese had established rice planting bases in the Sanjiang Plain, but they were defeated by the severe cold climate here. People even come to the conclusion that growing rice in the cold northeast region is simply wishful thinking. Indeed, due to the low temperature and short frost-free period in Heilongjiang, only dryland crops with a short growth period such as wheat and soybeans can grow. However, the Sanjiang Plain has criss-crossed rivers and nine years of waterlogging, which has become a fatal injury to dryland crops. Especially in July and August, when it rains, the wheat cannot be harvested. Therefore, "using rice to control waterlogging" has become a strategic choice for the reform of the planting structure of the Sanjiang Plain. In order to find rice varieties suitable for production in cold regions, Xu Yirong traveled to all rice research institutes in northern provinces, collected rice variety materials, collected and analyzed tens of thousands of sets of data each year, and repeatedly conducted identification tests such as cold tolerance. From direct sowing high-yield cultivation to dry-raising and sparse cultivation, a complete set of rice cultivation techniques in cold regions have been explored, breaking through the forbidden areas of rice cultivation in high-cold regions. 

Of course, this is also due to the development of modern science and technology. His technology then uses greenhouses to grow seedlings in factories, helping the seedlings to grab an accumulated temperature of 300 degrees Celsius in the first month of growth, plus mechanical transplanting, buying time for rice growth. After decades of hard work by Xu Yirong and countless agricultural science and technology workers, the former Great Northern Wilderness has become a veritable "Beidacang". Now japonica rice has become a common food in people's rice bowls, and Northeast rice is famous all over the world. In the summer of 2011, 　

　Of course, in the field of rice research in my country, there are still many scientists who have made outstanding contributions. For example, Xie Huaan, an expert in hybrid rice breeding and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is one of them. In recent years, many places in the south have changed double-cropping rice to single-cropping mid-season rice, which has improved the quality and efficiency, but the yield of rice has decreased. If half-season ratooning rice is added, this problem can be better compensated. Xie Huaan and I discussed ratooning rice several times. Several ratooning rice varieties cultivated by him and his team are widely planted in southern regions. Regeneration can reach four to five hundred kilograms, achieving a breakthrough in Chinese agricultural production. The Ministry of Agriculture once promoted it nationwide. Xie Huaan is a simple, sincere, and rigorous person. He once bred a "Shanyou 63" variety with a maximum annual planting area of ​​more than 100 million mu and won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. However, Xie Huaan doesn't say that this fine variety he has cultivated is good all the time, but hopes that a better variety can replace it and eliminate it. He is afraid that if there is too much planting, other diseases will knock down the rice and cause losses to the farmers. His worries reflect the responsibility and conscience of scientists. It was also because of his striving for perfection that later varieties such as "II Youming 86" came into being. Some people say that he is "all earthy, two-sleeved rice flower fragrance", I think it is very appropriate.

　　 (two)

　　 Wheat is an important ration for northerners. For Chinese, especially northerners, buns cannot leave every day. The Huanghuaihai area is the main wheat producing area in our country, with green fields in spring and golden in summer. Several people often appear in my mind. With their continuous efforts, my country's wheat has undergone revolutionary changes in terms of variety cultivation, high-yield cultivation, resistance enhancement, and quality improvement. They use the wind-blown wheat field as the most important stage in their lives, and they are my "friends in the wheat fields." Guo Tiancai, a professor at Henan Agricultural University, and Guo Jinkao, a researcher at the Shijiazhuang Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences in Hebei Province, are typical representatives. These "two Guos" have planted the roots of scientific research in the grassroots fertile soil, ploughed the wheat fields, and achieved fruitful results.

　 One out of every four steamed buns in China is from Henan. In Henan, Guo Tiancai is the most popular person among the peasants. Every year when I go to Henan to see wheat, I listen to him talking about "Tao" in the wheat field. Guo Tiancai is a scientist who writes papers on the ground, and has been focusing on wheat cultivation for decades. When the wheat was planted, he ran into the wheat field, and when the wheat was harvested, he ran to the laboratory. He has systematically studied the law of wheat growth and development in Henan and is the "field sitter" for high-yield wheat. He knows how to manage wheat in what season and how to deal with problems. Running into the wheat field has become his joy of life. In the bag that Guo Tiancai carried with him, there were always two "magic weapons": a small shovel and a steel tape measure. The small shovel is used to dig the soil in the wheat field to see the moisture content and the growth of the wheat root system, and the steel tape measure is used to measure the growth of the wheat plant height. Guo Tiancai is still a joyful scientist, like a grassroots cadre in the countryside. Although he is a university professor, he "goes to the hall and goes to the kitchen". He teaches students well in class, and the students listened with gusto and told him what he said. Moving to the countryside to tell the farmers, the farmers can also understand. Communicating with him always makes people feel relaxed and full of confidence. This year, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, during the spring plowing period, I was unable to go to Henan for field investigations, so I connected with him on video. He told me about the seedlings' moisture in the wheat field and summed up four sentences on the spot: "Soil moisture is sufficient, seedlings' love is sufficient. The overall situation is good, and the harvest is very basic. Don't relax in the spring tube." After I heard it, I felt more at ease. Guo Tiancai has devoted 40 years of hard work to "let everyone eat white noodles and buns every day" and created a high-yield wheat cultivation technology system in Henan. He pioneered the production of wheat/summer maize with 10,000 acres of contiguous slices of over ton and half of grain (1524.74 kg per mu). . On December 26, 2011, the National Grain Production Commendation and Awarding Conference was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. This is a gathering of elites in my country’s food production. Guo Tiancai was commended and rewarded by the State Council as an agricultural scientific and technical personnel for outstanding contributions to the country’s food production. I propose to make this "wheat field" "The Watcher" spoke at the meeting on behalf of agricultural scientists and technicians across the country.

　　Winter wheat is a "big water user", and the growing season is not synchronized with the rainy season. Therefore, the whole growth process of wheat has to rely on water to boost strength, "the first water is early, the second water catches up, the three waters and the four waters are closely connected, and the water is poured until the wheat opens the sickle." This has aggravated the over-extraction of groundwater in Hebei, the main wheat-producing area, and the deeper and deeper the wells have been drilled, the emergence of a "funnel zone", and water saving has become a hurdle for wheat production. Guo Jinkao, a researcher who graduated from technical secondary school, has painstakingly studied the reality of water shortage in Hebei, adjusted the breeding direction, specializing in water-saving and high-yielding new wheat varieties, and led the research team to find the most "thirst-tolerant" seeds. In the same year, he and Guo Tiancai were rated as agricultural scientific and technical personnel with outstanding contributions to national food production. In the past ten years, I have seen him in the wheat field almost every year. Guo Jinkao is a tall, black and thin man who wanders in the wheat fields all the year round, with messy hair and "vicissitudes of life" on his face. He is with the farmer. You can't tell that he is an expert. He looks like a farmer with the expert. He laughed at himself, "I'm not a good farmer, I don't deserve to be an expert." Guo Jinkao did scientific research under limited conditions. His research institute has no high-rise buildings and few modern equipment. I went to visit his experimental field. There was a plastic greenhouse in the middle, and there were many wheat fields around to test dozens of varieties. He took the "secret weapon" I saw his latest research, and watered it again. The other wheat smashed or even dried up, but his wheat grew very well. He bred new varieties one after another, such as "Shi 4185", "Shijiazhuang No. 8", "Shimai 15", and "Shimai 22" successively appeared and promoted, becoming the main wheat varieties in North China. Once, Guo Jinkao took me to Malan Farm in Xinleitou Town, Xinji City to see his wheat variety test base, and showed me why his water-saving wheat works. He dug a three-meter deep next to the test field