Let green vegetables enter the dining table of thousands of households

Chen Riyuan checked the growth of seedlings in the experimental shed.

Vegetable research expert Chen Riyuan:

Chen Riyuan, a professor and doctoral supervisor of South China Agricultural University, is an agronomic expert who has worked in vegetable fields all the year round. Chen Riyuan operates many vegetable experimental sites and technical extension bases in Dongguan, Foshan and even Guangxi, Yunnan, Ningxia and other areas. over the years, he and a group of agronomic experts have actively mobilized enterprises or farmers to form vegetable cooperatives to promote the non-toxic planting system they recommend. Led by these agronomic experts, about tens of thousands of farmers have set up cooperatives, and the vegetables produced have entered the dining table of thousands of households.

Text and photo: Zhang Yingwu, reporter of Guangzhou Daily

Practice in the vegetable field

A pair of "golden eyes"

After the big fish and meat, there is a plate of "Qing Sautéed Seasonal Vegetable" with delicious taste and bright color, which is both nutritious and healthy. Green vegetables are almost a necessary recipe for people in every meal. Chen Riyuan, who is in his 50s, is a senior agronomic expert who has studied all kinds of vegetables in vegetable fields for decades.

"vegetable production has seasonal and climatic problems, but through modern cultivation techniques, we can eat all kinds of vegetables all the year round." In Chen Riyuan's vegetable experiment greenhouse, rows of tender green seedlings are particularly dazzling. Chen Riyuan is holding a small vegetable seedling cultivated without soil and carefully observing its growth. He told reporters that the planting technology of vegetables in the greenhouse has been very mature, which can make up for the seasonal deficiency of vegetables and meet people's diversified needs for vegetables, such as carrots, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, eggplant, rape and other common winter vegetables that can be eaten at any time now.

After working in the vegetable planting experiment greenhouse for nearly 30 years, Chen Riyuan is familiar with all kinds of vegetables and fruits, and has also developed a pair of "golden eyes". He can judge whether the vegetables are healthy and what common diseases they suffer from according to their appearance.

Vegetable cultivation and facility horticulture are two major fields studied by Chen Riyuan, which have a direct impact on the quality, yield and production safety of vegetables. In the 1980s, Chen Riyuan noticed the limitations of the traditional cultivation of vegetables. At that time, the common planting method for vegetable farmers was to spray pesticides whenever there were diseases and insect pests, and desperately apply chemical fertilizers when they were not growing well. Due to excessive reliance on the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, the sweat of vegetable farmers not only failed to improve the quality and yield of vegetables, but also easy to cause excessive pesticide residues in vegetables, harming the planting soil and other problems. This prompted Chen Riyuan to make use of his horticulture (vegetable) expertise to provide more technical support for farmers to grow vegetables, so that more people can eat safe, green and healthy vegetables.

The top quality Guangdong cabbage heart is grown on Ningxia farm.

Chen Riyuan, who was born in a rural family, may not have thought that he would have an inextricable bond with agricultural cultivation for most of his life. He, who originally wanted to be admitted to a popular science and engineering major at that time, was later transferred to a vegetable major at South China Agricultural University because of his abnormal performance in the college entrance examination.

Chen Riyuan was also lost for a while at that time. "after working hard to get into college in the countryside, I didn't expect to still have to deal with crops." However, Chen Riyuan was soon attracted by the rich and colorful varieties and interesting features of the "vegetable Kingdom". He experimented with cultivating different kinds of vegetables all the year round, often messing around in the laboratory for a whole day, such as one day for decades. Chen Riyuan persisted in studying the vegetable field for 30 years, and became more and more obsessed, Chen told reporters, "although he chose this line by coincidence. But I have always felt very grateful. "

In recent years, Chen Riyuan has led a research team dedicated to the promotion and application of vegetable cultivation techniques and horticultural facilities. In order to make vegetables with local characteristics have better quality, they have conducted cross-regional planting experiments for many years. In the 1990s, Chen Riyuan visited Yunnan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Ningxia, Guangxi and other places to inspect the growing environment of vegetables, and provided technical guidance to farmers, and achieved many remarkable results. for example, they used the natural environment such as large temperature difference and sufficient sunlight on Ningxia farm to cultivate cabbage hearts of Guangdong varieties, and the Ningxia cabbage hearts planted were bright in color and delicious in taste, making them the first choice for Cantonese cuisine.

Compared with the vegetables on the market, the fresh vegetables in the vegetable base guided by Chen Riyuan's research team have three major advantages of safety, freshness and high quality. at present, Chen Riyuan operates many experimental sites and technical promotion bases in many areas. he actively contacted large agricultural enterprises, or mobilized farmers to form vegetable cooperatives to promote their recommended non-toxic planting system. So far, tens of thousands of farmers have formed production cooperatives driven by these agronomic experts, and the green vegetables produced have entered the dining table of thousands of households.