Handan "potato expert" leads the villagers to become rich

A simple and honest farmer, after more than 20 years of potato cultivation, although he has experienced three painful failures and lessons, he is still obsessed with going out to study and inspect many times, and then with the help of experts in the "Science and Technology package" group of the Municipal Academy of Agricultural Sciences, combined with the local natural conditions, he fumbled out a set of practical planting techniques. After getting rich, he did not forget to lead the villagers to get rich together, and was affectionately called a "potato expert" by his neighbors. He is Zhao Zhi, a villager of Xinanzhuang Village, Daodongbao Township, Cheng'an County.

Zhao Zhi was born in 1963 in Daodongbao Township, Cheng'an County. This is an important cotton base. In the 1960s, Mao Zedong and other state leaders came here to inspect and guide agricultural work, which built up confidence for him to devote himself to agriculture and take root in rural areas. After graduating from high school in 1979, he was only a few points behind in the highly competitive college entrance examination, but he was not as pessimistic as others. He believes that there is also a broad world in rural areas, and great achievements will be made in agriculture. He took an active part in the upsurge of agricultural construction by virtue of his high school culture.

After several years of cotton planting, Zhao Zhiqi has accumulated some planting experience. In view of the fact that mung beans and peanuts are often planted in cotton fields, he considered the possibility of intercropping other crops with high yields and high profits. At that time, he considered that the growth cycle of cotton was relatively long, and there was a large gap between cotton plants and rows, so why he could not make full use of it, he tried to plant potatoes. So in 1989, he introduced some original potatoes from Shandong, and after trying to cultivate and plant them, they all rotted in the ground, resulting in an one-time loss of 70,000 to 80,000. for this failure, Zhao Zhi was not discouraged. the following year, after learning that there were a large number of potato farmers in Zhangjiakou area, he went to learn planting techniques and experience, and bought the original seeds locally, which was a success. In 1992, he wanted to further promote the planting area of potatoes and contracted 43 mu of land. Under his influence, the neighbors also planted a lot of potatoes. As a result, the seed potatoes were not completely detoxified, resulting in a massive reduction in potato production, which cost him more than NT $100,000 again. Feel that they have lost, it is nothing, the key is that a lot of people follow their own planting losses. In order to give the villagers an excuse, he borrowed more than NT $100,000 from relatives and friends and paid the money to everyone on the grounds of factory compensation. It is precisely because of this that he has established his prestige in everyone's hearts, and they are all willing to follow him to grow potatoes. Subsequently, he privately approached the manufacturers in Zhangjiakou to tell about the losses caused by the reduction in the production of potatoes, which was later demonstrated by experts that there was a problem with the quality of potatoes. After investigation and evidence collection by the seed potato company in Zhangjiakou, it was finally confirmed that it was their responsibility, and 30,000 jin of seed potatoes were compensated the following year. In 2012, he bought 83 tons of seed potatoes from Shandong at one time, and because of the variety of seed potatoes, the potatoes after harvest were deformed in shape and blue in appearance. Although they had a bumper harvest this time, they could not be sold because of appearance and color problems, and a large number of potatoes were forced to be thrown away.

How can we avoid this risk? In 2013, Zhao Zhi sought advice from experts Li Jijun and Li Junling of the Municipal Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The experts first told that the selection of the original species of the original land was very important. To this end, in order to ensure the quality of seed potatoes, he went to seed potato producing areas for selection. From the seed potato harvest, warehousing, detoxification, logistics and other "one-stop" follow-up. Under the guidance of experts from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhao Zhi made a large number of adjustments and improvements in the late management, combined with his own practical experience, such as the height of ridging, the size of watering, the depth of sowing, and the sowing time, so as to further improve the potato yield. He also opened up a piece of land in his small courtyard to be used as an experimental field to plant early-maturing, very early-maturing, common varieties of potatoes to see their appearance, how far apart the plants and rows, and what diseases they have, to ensure which variety to choose in the coming year.

Where there's a will, there's a way. Under the guidance of experts from the Municipal Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhao Zhi explored a whole set of planting techniques in practice. Under his guidance, the potatoes planted by the villagers are 500 jin more per mu than in the same way in other places, and he is also responsible for helping farmers find a market. In the face of so much persistence, Zhao Zhi said half-jokingly that his experience of growing potatoes was similar to that of Lao she growing flowers. "there are laughter and tears, flowers and fruits, fragrance and color in growing potatoes," he said. "continue to work and increase fun. This is the pleasure of growing flowers and being a potato farmer." Finally, he stressed the need to persist in leading everyone to become rich and well-off.