The fragrance of melon is full of "Hangcheng".

Yanliang District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, China's large aircraft industry base, which integrates aircraft research and design, production, flight test appraisal, teaching and research, is known as China's "Seattle". In recent years, the melon industry has been vigorously developed here, and the planting scale has stabilized at 65000 mu, becoming the largest early spring melon production base in the country, and enjoying the reputation of "hometown of muskmelon in China". "Yan Liang muskmelon" has become another beautiful business card after "Air City of China".

In Yan Liang, when talking about the development of the melon industry, melon farmers unanimously put their thumbs up to the experts at the melon test and demonstration station of Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry. In their hearts, Yan Liang melon can develop to today's scale, melon farmers happy to become rich and well-off, are deeply branded with the imprint of "West Agricultural University."

Experts and professors Shen first-line listed station to promote transformation

Yanliang has superior agricultural natural conditions and is an eugenic area of muskmelon. Thin-skinned melons have been grown locally since the 1950s. However, due to the late listing of traditional thin-skinned melon varieties, poor quality, low competitiveness and low efficiency, the muskmelon industry has not become a climate.

At the beginning of this century, the new variety of "Zaomi No.1" thick-skinned muskmelon cultivated by du Junzhi, an expert from Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry, was vigorously promoted locally, and Yanliang muskmelon industry rose rapidly. by 2005, Yanliang muskmelon planting area had reached 25000 mu.

With the rise of the industry, problems such as single varieties, uneven levels of seedling breeding and cultivation management followed, coupled with some melon farmers eager for quick success and quick profit, blind fertilization and pesticides, resulting in Yanliang melon industry market reputation affected.

At the end of 2006, Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology gave full play to the advantages of the university's scientific and technological talent cluster and officially listed the "Yanliang muskmelon Experimental demonstration Station" in Guanshan Town, Yanliang District. In addition to appointing du Junzhi as the chief expert, he also selected Wang Ming and other well-known experts to form an advisory group, and at the same time selected experts in plant protection, plant nutrition, facility cultivation, and agricultural technology promotion to stay at the station for a long time to jointly promote the transformation and upgrading of Yanliang melon industry.

Overcome difficulties and be approachable and adopt comprehensive policies to ensure a bumper harvest

After the establishment of the test and demonstration station, experts combined with the reality of Yan Liang's soil, climate and melon industry development, carried out scientific research in new variety breeding, seedling breeding, cultivation, fertilization, pest prevention and control, and used technical strength to support the development of the industry.

Over the past 10 years, the test and demonstration station has selected more than 60 new melon strains that meet different market needs, such as precocious melon, cantaloupe and thin peel series, and identified and registered six new melon varieties such as "Xitian 208", "Xinongxinzaomi 1", "Qianyu 1", "Xinong Qianbao", "Shaantian 1" and "Shaantian 9". The annual promotion area in Yanliang District is more than 50,000 mu, accounting for more than 90% of the total area of the whole region. Successfully realized the upgrading of muskmelon varieties in Yanliang District.

In view of the weakness of the local traditional hot Kang nutrition soil bowl seedling raising method, such as great difficulty, low seedling rate and poor quality, the experts carried out the research on raising seedlings with hole-plate substrate and successfully popularized it, and the popularization rate of the technology was more than 98%.

Guide the training of high-level cooperative operation to enter the market

With the development of muskmelon industry entering a stable mature period, the disadvantages of the traditional household management model have become increasingly prominent. Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology also realized that technical support alone could no longer meet the new requirements of the development of the melon industry, so the school hired agricultural experts such as Wang Zhengbing to supplement the expert team of the experimental demonstration station to engage in marketing and brand building, so as to promote the further transformation and upgrading of Yanliang's melon industry.

The experimental demonstration station cooperates with the Yanliang district government to send farmers' representatives to the school in batches to carry out special modern agricultural system training, and to guide and support them to build cooperatives and take the road of modern agricultural development. The experimental demonstration station has successively supported the establishment of more than 20 professional cooperatives (associations) and trained nearly 100 brokers specializing in melon marketing.

Zhang Xiaoping, chairman of Yan Liangke agricultural melon and vegetable professional cooperative, set up a professional cooperative in 2008 under the guidance of the experimental demonstration station. At present, the cooperative has 260 members, with a melon base of 2600 mu and an annual output of 4000 tons. In 2015, the per capita income of cooperatives was 40% higher than that of neighboring members. This year, he took the lead in establishing the Jingwei Green Agricultural products Professional Cooperation Association in Yan Liang. "some of our members are specialized in seedling breeding, melon production and marketing, packaging, and e-commerce. With the strong support of Xi Nong, our members dare to think and do anything, and are full of confidence in the future development! " Zhang Xiaoping said so.

In the past 10 years, Yanliang melon has grown from 25000 mu to 65000 mu, and its income per mu has increased from more than 4000 yuan to more than 8500 yuan. Yanliang melon, which went on sale in March this year, even sold for 50 yuan each. "half a year, half a year free, half a year can earn a few years of money." This jingle was happily on the lips of Yan Liang melon farmers. In 2015, Yanliang's total agricultural output value reached 3.688 billion yuan, of which 680 million yuan came from the melon industry.

Wang Xuefeng, our reporter Xiao Liwei and Hu Mingbao