Wang Qinglian: agricultural Science and Technology should never lag behind others

In the half-man-tall shrub, at the end of each branch is a cotton ball of four or five petals of white velvet, bulging the bud. The sky is high and the clouds are light, and the blue sky, breeze and clusters of cotton balls seem to have entered a fairy tale world full of marshmallows. In fact, this is just the most common cotton field.

Over the past 40 years, Wang Qinglian's research on cotton has been firm and persistent, and has never changed.

Wang Qinglian, 60, is a professor at Henan Institute of Science and Technology and a well-known cotton breeding expert in China. The "Baimian" series of cotton varieties he cultivated are important insect-resistant cotton varieties in China, which provides an important scientific and technological support for safeguarding China's cotton scientific research independence.

"when I began to study cotton, it was still a time when I didn't have enough to eat and wear." Wang Qinglian said: dressing depends on cotton and spending money on cotton. At that time, the planting area of cotton in the country was 90 million mu, but the per unit yield was less than 50 kg. "if there is more cotton production, the people will be able to make more money and less cold." Seeing that too many people were suffering from poverty due to lack of cotton, Wang Qinglian was determined to use science and technology to change the lives of ordinary people.

Variety is the key to high yield of cotton. In 1983, Wang Qinglian began to cultivate the first cotton variety, which has been studied for 20 years. In 1991, the new cotton variety cultivated by Wang Qinglian was stable, but during a seed dressing and sowing, the assistant accidentally destroyed all the seeds and scrapped all the materials. In three or nine days, Wang Qinglian, who heard the bad news, suddenly sat in his chair sweating and drenched his cotton-padded clothes and trousers. The next day, after a sleepless night, Wang Qinglian lost his temper and called all the researchers to start all over again.

Where there's a will, there's a way. In 2001, Wang Qinglian successfully cultivated "Baimian No. 1", which increased production by 15.8%. Because of its stable yield and strong disaster resistance, it was rapidly popularized in the cotton area of the Yellow River Basin and became one of the most important cotton varieties in China.

In the following years, Wang Qinglian led the team to cultivate more than 10 varieties, such as "Baimian 3", "Baimian 985", "Baimian Chang 6" and so on. At present, the "hundred cotton" series of varieties have been planted in a total of more than 50 million mu nationwide, and the benefit of increasing production has exceeded 7 billion yuan, firmly grasping the voice of Chinese cotton. "now we can proudly say that more than 99% of the main cotton varieties in China are owned by our own Chinese." Wang Qinglian said.

After 40 years of scientific research, Wang Qinglian has always believed in the power of science and technology. Using modern biological breeding technology, the average per mu yield of cotton in China can reach 100 kg, double that of 1980; the variety "Baimian Chang 6" cultivated by Wang Qinglian can spin 330 high-grade yarns, eight times that of ordinary cotton. This kind of shirt made of long-staple cotton is only 100 grams, which can be grasped in the palm of the hand, and the Chinese have grown the best cotton in the world.

"if China goes out, China's agriculture will also go out." In 2004, Wang Qinglian led the breeding team to conduct cotton research exchanges with Kyrgyzstan and built an industrial demonstration park of 3000 mu, which increased the yield of cotton varieties by more than 40% compared with local varieties. Henan Institute of Science and Technology also cooperated with American universities to carry out cotton molecular biology research, and signed an agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture to share seed resources for cotton molecular design and breeding.

Wang Qinglian felt great pressure on the fruitful results of scientific research. "in the past two years, the domestic cotton planting area has dropped to 60 million mu, the cost is high, the comparative profit is low, the people are unwilling to grow cotton, cotton has entered a low ebb." Wang Qinglian said. At present, promoting the supply-side reform of the cotton industry through scientific research and breeding has become the most important topic for Wang Qinglian. Wang Qinglian began to focus on the cultivation of market scarce varieties such as high elastic fiber cotton and extra-excellent long-staple cotton, as well as cotton varieties with compact plant types that are more suitable for mechanized harvesting.

"Scientific and technological innovation is not only the support for improving the productive forces, but also the key to solving all difficult problems. Taking grain as security and clothing for the rest of the world, China's agriculture can never be relaxed, and agricultural science and technology can never lag behind people." Wang Qinglian said. Song Xiaodong