The wind blows thousands of waves of rice and grass, and the rice flowers are fragrant everywhere in Crane Township.
After the beginning of autumn, walking into the fields of Zhentai County, the aroma of rice comes to the nose, and as far as the eye can see, it is golden and endless. The roaring harvester shuttles back and forth between the golden rice waves, and a magnificent harvest picture spreads out.
Who would have thought that Zhentai County, which has won the first place in rice planting area and rice output in our province for 7 consecutive years, has a history of rice planting for less than 40 years. What is even more unbelievable is that these 1.55 million acres of rice fields were actually a saline-alkali flat where even weeds could not grow 36 years ago.
In 36 years, why has there been such a great change in Zhentai County?
The answer is obvious: Zhentai County and the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences are deeply integrated, promote the prosperity of the agricultural industry with science and technology, explore the establishment of a cooperation model between the institute and the locality, develop and expand the grassroots agricultural science and technology force, and empower the revitalization of Zhentai countryside and quality agriculture by equipping a group of leading experts, incubating a group of local talents, and serving a rural industry.
Scientific and technological research to solve industrial scientific and technological problems
To control saline-alkali land, soil improvement, cultivation of improved seeds, and the adoption of good methods and good policies are indispensable.
In 1988, Li Xuechen, Guo Ximing, Sui Pengju and Zhao Guochen of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences came to Gashigen Township to carry out the screening test of rice saline-alkali tolerant varieties according to the local specific conditions, and screened out the new saline-alkali tolerant rice variety Changbai 9 from hundreds of rice materials, which can still grow and develop normally under the alkaline conditions of soil salt content of 0.3% and pH8.0 to pH8.5, until today, this variety is still the main rice cultivar in the western region of our province.
"Changbai No. 9 is lodging resistant, high yield, salinity-alkali tolerant, fertilizer tolerant and disease resistant, especially in Zhentai County, where the yield per hectare in normal years is about 10,000 kilograms." Guo Jinrui, deputy director of the Rice Institute of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said.
In recent years, with the efforts of the rice cultivation and tillage technology research team of the Rice Institute of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the team has formed a stable yield and sustainable technical system of soda saline-alkali land rice with the goal of promoting improvement and improving quality and efficiency by summarizing more than 30 years of experience in saline-alkali land improvement. The yield per mu of severely saline-alkali land exceeded 300 kg that year, and the cumulative area of improved saline-alkali land exceeded 300,000 mu.
Through "using rice to control waterlogging, rice to treat alkali, and rice to get rich", the rice production in Zhentai County has achieved three phased leaps from "starting from scratch, from low yield to high yield, and from high yield to high quality", and the yield of rice planting in saline-alkali land has also increased from 350 kg/mu to 900 kg/mu, and great achievements have been made in the research and production of rice planting in saline-alkali land.
Experts are on temporary duty to strengthen the scientific and technological strength at the grassroots level
From the "white desert" to the vertical and horizontal Qianmo, Jianping Township, Zhentai County, which was once heavily saline-alkali land, can now see thousands of rice waves stretching endlessly. "This year's annual rice output can reach more than 1,000 tons, and the output is 10% higher than last year." Ma Wei, an associate researcher at the Rice Institute of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences and a provincial science and technology commissioner, who has been rooted in Zhentai for 12 years, told reporters.
From barren land to stable yield fields, and then some fields have become high-yield fields with a yield of more than 10 tons per hectare, it is inseparable from the hard work and sweat of scientific researchers.
In June 2023, Ma Wei officially served as the deputy head of Gashigen Township. Since taking up his post, Ma Wei has established a docking relationship with the local government, the person in charge of rice production enterprises, and planting and breeding households according to the characteristics of the rice industry in Gashigen Township, and established a long-term contact mechanism for experts to serve the grassroots level, so that experts can continue to effectively carry out follow-up technical guidance and service work in Gashigen Township through long-term service and centralized service.
In recent years, the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, together with the local government, has actively explored a new model of cooperation between the institute and the local government, continued to increase the dispatch of science and technology in key areas, and successively selected 39 scientific and technological personnel to Baicheng, Songyuan, Taonan, Huadian and other more than 10 counties and cities to serve as deputy science and technology officers, accurately meet the technical needs of local agricultural and rural development, and implement policies according to local conditions and villages in view of the actual problems of agricultural production, and the transformation and implementation of scientific and technological achievements one by one, so as to support and lead Jilin's rural revitalization and agricultural modernization to achieve leapfrog development.
Walking into the house of Wang Zhijun, a grower in Gashigen Township, his face was filled with the joy of a bumper harvest: "This year is a good year, a bumper harvest!" Today, Gashigen Township is the first wealthy township in the county, and Zhentai County is also the largest county in the province in paddy fields, with the rice planting area increasing year by year, and the yield and quality increasing year by year.
In 2023, Zhentai County will achieve a rice planting area of 1.55 million mu and an output of 2.05 billion catties.
Who would have thought that this rich and beautiful granary was once a saline-alkali barren beach with no grass. Meng Weiren, a researcher at the Rice Research Institute, told reporters that since 1988, there have been three generations of scientific researchers from the Rice Institute of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences who have been here for 36 years, dedicating their wisdom and youth.
The transformation of achievements, saline-alkali land into rice grain river
The saline-alkali land is known as the "white desert" and was once called the "terminal disease" of the land. Zhentai is located in one of the main distribution areas of the world's three major soda saline-alkali lands.
In the past, how did the saline-alkali flats become a rice grain river with lakes and rice fields?
The change has to start with a river and a group of people.
"Don't underestimate the water I farm, thanks to the project of introducing tender water into white, I use Nenjiang water for irrigation, and it is with the nourishment of this Nenjiang water that the saline-alkali land has become a fertile land with high and stable yield." Zhang Wei, a large grain grower, said.
"The use of rice to treat alkali has not only increased the income of the land, but also really changed the land, the original value was pH 10.5, and through years of improvement and planting, the current value has reached pH about 7.5. The yield of rice per hectare is now close to 10,000 kilograms. Zhang Wei said happily.
For high and stable grain yield, the key is to select saline-alkali tolerant rice varieties. The development of saline-alkali tolerant rice varieties is inseparable from the experts of the Rice Institute of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
"There are 92 experimental varieties growing in my experimental field, and no matter how complex the saline-alkali land in the county is, I can find a suitable variety from here." Ren Zhiguo, 75-year-old chairman of the Yingtai Agricultural Machinery Farmers' Cooperative, said that although the rice industry in Zhentai is grown from saline-alkali land, local farmers no longer worry about the yield over the years, but have put more effort into "producing good rice, creating good brands, and selling at good prices."
There is a limit to asking for food from the land, and there is no limit to asking for food from science and technology. In the next step, Zhentai will also cultivate better and more rice varieties suitable for local planting, and firmly hold the "Chinese rice bowl".
Author: Pan Shengyu, Wang Kai, Jilin Rural Daily all-media reporter Xu Wenjun
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Liyun
Preliminary review: Zhang Liyun
Re-examination: Shi Wei
Final review: Cao Mengnan