On April 20, in the "Nongda 761" high-quality wheat 1,000 acres square field in Anping County, Hengshui City, Hebei Province, Liu Ruixue, an expert from China Agricultural University and the head of Dr. Xianglin Farm in Xushui District, Baoding City, looked at the seedlings and checked the moisture, and explained the technical essentials of water and fertilizer rationing, pest control and other technical essentials to more than 200 local agricultural technicians, rural cadres and large planters.
Dr. Farm Expert preaches wheat spring management technology to farmers. Photo by Lei Yonghuai
"This spring, in addition to communicating with farmers online, my technical team has visited more than 30 concentrated wheat planting areas of 'Nongda 761' in the province, covering a distance of about 2,800 kilometers. Facing the joy on the faces of the people, 39-year-old Liu Ruixue was very pleased. She grew up in the countryside of Xushui, and when she worked in Beijing a few years ago, "I didn't feel good when I saw the high-priced and hot-selling special fruits and vegetables and high-end wheat flour in the supermarket, compared with a large number of cheap agricultural products in my hometown." In 2017, she gave up the preferential treatment of the city and returned to her hometown to start a business. The land was transferred to set up an agricultural cooperative, and the fruit tomatoes introduced and promoted were sold two or three times higher than the price of local ordinary varieties, and they sold well in the Beijing and Tianjin markets.
Liu Ruixue (right) exchanges wheat management techniques with growers. Photo by Li Meng
In order to achieve high quality and high price of the most widely planted wheat in his hometown, Liu Ruixue, a "new farmer", cooperated with the doctoral team of China Agricultural University to set up a doctoral farm and 1,000 acres of improved seed fields in Xushui to breed "Nongda 761" wheat varieties. Experts regularly go to the field to guide, Liu Ruixue systematically learned, several years of practice has also become an "agricultural expert", but also rated as an intermediate agronomist, the farm was named the "women's agricultural science and technology demonstration base" by the Provincial Women's Federation.
In 2022, 27,000 mu will be demonstrated and promoted in Xushui and many places in the province, with an average income of more than 300 yuan per mu higher than that of ordinary wheat, benefiting more than 10,000 farmers. In the autumn of 2023, after the recommendation of the agricultural department, the variety was spread by word of mouth among farmers, and the variety was expanded to 500,000 mu in Hebei Province.
Liu Ruixue (left) inspects wheat seedlings in the field. Photo by Li Meng
From sowing, management to harvesting, Liu Ruixue traveled around the wheat fields to guide her. "These wheat are like our children, watching them grow stronger and more productive day by day, and we are happy in our hearts. Liu Ruixue said that Zhuozhou City, which suffered from catastrophic floods last year, introduced 2,000 acres of "Nongda 761", and she was even more concerned, bringing technical personnel to the scene two or three times a month. Today, the wheat is more than a foot tall and growing well.
Seeds are the "chips" of agriculture and the guarantee of a good harvest. "This year, Dr. Xianglin Farm has introduced more than a dozen new wheat varieties, and selected and promoted them after trial planting. It has signed agreements with large-scale domestic grain storage and flour manufacturers to purchase high-quality wheat grown by farmers for a long time, and build a whole industrial chain of 'scientific research institutions + breeding bases + cooperatives (farmers) + grain enterprises' to help farmers increase their yields and incomes. Looking at the green field, Liu Ruixue is full of confidence. (Liu Kexuan)