Exploring a New Model for Agricultural Technology to Take Root

From the excellent wheat variety "Bili No. 1", which has the largest cumulative promotion area in the world, to the improved distant hybrid wheat variety "Xiaoyan 6", which has dominated the replacement of wheat varieties in China for a long time, and then to the high-yield and high-quality wheat variety "Xinong 979" with an area of nearly 100 million mu, Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology has launched a series of major wheat varieties to help farmers increase their income and protect the country's food security.

In recent years, centering on the major national and regional strategic needs, Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology has persisted in actively carrying out applied basic and applied research oriented to agricultural production. It has formed distinctive features and advantages in animal and plant breeding, plant protection, agricultural biotechnology, agriculture and water-saving technology in arid areas, and comprehensive control of soil and water loss on the Loess Plateau, and has obtained more than 5000 scientific and technological achievements of all kinds.

How can these scientific and technological achievements be effectively transformed into productive forces? As early as 2005, Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology took the lead in exploring and practicing the new model of agricultural science and technology based on universities in China, and set up 23 experimental and demonstration stations throughout the country. involving grain, vegetables, fruits, etc., more than 500 scientific and educational personnel are engaged in agricultural technology promotion in the production line, and more than 200 subject experts are resident in the test and demonstration station.

"only by being rooted in the vast fields can we really know what is most needed there and what kind of scientific research results can produce the best economic benefits." Principal Sun Qixin said.

Relying on the experimental and demonstration stations, the school has trained a total of 450000 agrotechnical personnel and farmers at the grass-roots level, guided the cultivation of more than 2,400 scientific and technological demonstration households, promoted more than 1100 new agricultural varieties and technologies, and increased economic benefits by more than 30 billion yuan. major articles on supporting agriculture have been written in the vast rural land.

Break the old system and explore the establishment of a new model of promotion

Since the new century, in view of the demand for science and technology in the development of modern agriculture, Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry has fully taken into account the characteristics of agriculture, such as ecological regionality, timeliness of production, variability of the environment, dispersion of the main body of management, and the fact that the scientific, technological and cultural quality of Chinese farmers is relatively low and lack of awareness and ability to accept new technologies, and gradually explore and establish a new model of agricultural science and technology extension based on universities. It is proposed that we should take independent technological innovation as the core and let science and technology take root and bear fruit in the development of rural industry through four-wheel drive of technological innovation, technological demonstration, technical training and information dissemination.

Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology constantly highlights the function of serving "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" from the system: a special science and technology promotion department has been set up in the school institutions, and all kinds of science and technology promotion and technical services have been carried out in rural areas. According to the development needs of different agricultural industries, optimize the allocation of science and technology extension resources of the whole school, set up a number of distinctive science and technology extension teams such as wheat, vegetables, apples and beef cattle, and form a science and technology extension team of more than 500 people. a special fund for agricultural science and technology extension has been set up to support scientific and technological personnel to carry out extension work, and science and technology extension has been brought into the talent evaluation system, thus strengthening the guidance and incentive mechanism for extension work. An extension expert support Program has been set up to support scientific and technological personnel who have been engaged in extension work in rural areas for a long time and have had an important impact.

In recent years, the fruit industry in Shaanxi has developed by leaps and bounds, becoming the largest production province in the country and a sharp weapon for farmers to shake off poverty and become rich. Heyang grape, Luochuan apple and Meixian kiwifruit go deep into the hearts of consumers, and the experimental stations built in these fruit areas play a great role in variety test, cultivation demonstration and promotion.

At the Baishui Apple Experimental Station, Professor du Zhihui of the School of Plant Protection of Northwestern Agriculture and Forestry University told reporters that on the one hand, the experimental station should closely follow the development situation of apples and select excellent varieties. For example, Fuji, which has good taste but low yield and low resistance, is selected to cross with Qin Guan, which has poor quality but high yield and good resistance, to select new varieties with good yield and quality. More importantly, it is aimed at the local soil, climate, and so on, to test out the best cultivation methods, through demonstration, let farmers see the results, promote quickly and easily, and improve efficiency.

In recent years, combined with the needs of regional agricultural leading industries, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University has successively established 23 test and demonstration stations, such as Baishui Apple, Yanliang muskmelon, Meixian kiwifruit, Xixiang Tea, Ankang Aquatic products, Shanyang Walnut Chestnut, Qingjian Red Jujube, Yanliang vegetables, Heyang Grape, Luochuan Apple, Fengxian Zanthoxylum bungeanum and so on. 40 test and demonstration bases have been established in 36 cities and counties in 15 provinces. In accordance with the requirements of the development of industrialization, these experimental stations have established production standards and technical specifications from "land" to "dining table". From varieties, fertilization, irrigation, disease and pest control, storage, fresh-keeping, processing, sales and other links to provide technical services to farmers.

The school takes these experimental stations (bases) as the "connection point" to organize extension teams to realize the docking between university experts and local science and technology extension personnel; to organize scientific research to realize the docking of various scientific research topics and agricultural production problems; to organize technical promotion to realize the docking of technical services and the needs of farmers; to organize students' internships to promote the docking of classroom teaching and production practice.

In accordance with the idea of building a permanent test and demonstration station, Northwestern University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology launched the implementation of the new mechanism of "co-construction and co-management" in 2011. The construction and operation management of the test and demonstration station (base) has gradually changed from the past mode of "investment construction and operation management with the school as the main body" to the new mode of "local investment construction, school-land co-construction and co-management".

In 2014, the school and Yangling demonstration Zone took the lead and jointly established the Shaanxi Agricultural Collaborative Innovation and extension Alliance with 10 prefecture and city agricultural research institutions in Shaanxi Province to realize the overall coordination of agricultural science and technology resources between universities and prefectures and cities. Local governments and scientific research and promotion departments have shown great enthusiasm and urgent concern for the establishment of this alliance.

Luochuan Apple Experimental demonstration Station, Yan'an Municipal Government provided 150 mu of land free of charge, invested 6 million yuan in facility construction, and provided 500000 yuan for alliance promotion work every year; Longxian walnut experimental demonstration base, Longxian government invested 4 million yuan to build infrastructure, and the city and county levels provided 500000 yuan for demonstration and extension work every year.

Qianyang Apple Experimental demonstration Station implements the tripartite cooperation among the school, the city and the county to build a new mechanism. Every year, the school provides the station with 300000 yuan for operation and 700000 yuan for scientific research projects of the Ministry of Agriculture. A team of experts led by Li Bingzhi, director of the cultivation room of the national apple industrial system, was selected to carry out the experiment, demonstration and promotion of new technologies in the apple industry based on Qianyang and facing Baoji. Baoji City and Qianyang County provide 60 mu of land and houses free of charge, at the same time, they provide demonstration and extension funds of 500000 yuan to the demonstration station every year, and send city and county agrotechnical personnel to participate in tripartite cooperation to carry out technical services of the whole industry chain. After the establishment of the station in 2012, the new science and technology promotion model of "experimental station + leading enterprises + demonstration households" was adopted to guide the local enterprise Haisheng Company to build a high-standard all-dwarf rootstock apple demonstration garden of 10,000 mu, using big seedlings to build the garden. to achieve the remarkable benefit of 500-1500 kg per mu in the second year of the garden, promoting the new dwarf rootstock apple more than 100000 mu in Qianyang County, and becoming the county with the fastest promotion speed of this new technology in the country. In April 2014, Zhao Zhengyong, secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial CPC Committee, went to Qianyang County for research and instructed that the dwarf rootstock apple demonstration promotion carried out by the Qianyang Apple Experimental demonstration Station of Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology was an important example of the upgrading and transformation of the apple industry. Demonstration gardens should be promoted in apple producing counties. Still maintain the leading position of our province in the new round of apple industry development.

Serving the New Countryside, sticking to the Land, supporting Agriculture and achieving fruitful results

The vast land in the countryside is the real "test field" for university experts to realize scientific and technological innovation and production demand. Experts from the school have broken through the key technologies urgently needed by a group of farmers in this large "experimental field". Over the past 10 years, the experimental stations of the school have carried out more than 150 experimental studies and bred 25 new varieties, and important technological breakthroughs have been made in wheat, corn, rape, vegetables, apples, kiwifruit, walnuts, melons, red dates, aquatic products and other fields.

It is an important means to popularize science and technology to establish a typical demonstration model so that farmers can see, touch and follow the model. Zhao Shangli of the Liangshan Nongfu Cooperative in Qianxian County planted dwarf apples, with a yield of more than 10,000 jin per mu and an income of more than 20,000 yuan per mu. He said that his orchard is precisely to adopt the things learned from the experimental station, growing rape in winter to increase soil organic matter, the establishment of water and fertilizer integration facilities to harvest a high yield.

Training the backbone of agricultural technology to make farmers truly understand technology and management in the new era is an important part of the work of agricultural science and technology extension. Over the past 10 years, various experimental stations have established themselves in rural areas and trained a total of 72000 grass-roots cadres and technicians and 450000 farmers, and a number of industry leaders have emerged. The persons in charge of Yanliang District Ke Nong melon and vegetable professional cooperative, Baishui County Xianguo Association and Qingjian County Yuanlin Red Jujube Development Co., Ltd. are all scientific and technological demonstration households guided by the experimental station. Cao Jiehu and Hui Guohai, two farmers, appeared in Harvard University's "Agriculture and Food Forum" in 2010 to tell the story of how they got rich through science and technology, which caused a warm response.