Liang Yakuan, the "Watermelon King", sent Wenchang watermelon seeds into space twice.

When it comes to growing watermelons, there is a watermelon madman in Wenchang, "Watermelon wide". "Watermelon width" is called Liang Yakuan, a native of Jinshan Town in Wenchang. He is the president of Hainan Watermelon Professional Association and the chairman of Hainan Wenchang Chuangli Agricultural Co., Ltd. he has cultivated a series of excellent watermelon varieties such as "Chuangli 1mur9" through genetic grafting technology, and won the first prize for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in Hainan. Hainan and even the national well-known watermelon brand has become a bright spot in many industrialization tropical high-efficiency agricultural brilliance projects in Hainan.

Liang Yakuan at work

Liang Yakuan said that Wenchang sandy land is of high quality, and watermelons are famous for their excellent varieties, mature technology, fine crisp pulp, high sugar content and good taste. In May 2005, he sent eight varieties of watermelon seeds to Beijing by express mail. Subsequently, the watermelon seeds were handed over to the State Ministry of Agriculture, which contacted the National Space Ministry, which agreed that the watermelon seeds from Wenchang, Hainan, would go into space with the Shenzhou VI spacecraft. In 2011, he sent six varieties of Hainan watermelon seeds weighing 160 grams aboard the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft.

Liang Yakuan has a good skill in growing watermelons. He set up his own company in the 1990s to cultivate seedlings and grow watermelons. At the base of Wenchang Chuangli Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., Liang Yakuan became a "master" of melon growers in the hometown of overseas Chinese. When to raise seedlings, when to transplant, how to apply fertilizer, how to trim vines, how to protect seedlings from cold weather changes, how to control diseases and insect pests. There are answers to all these questions in Watermelon wide.

"Watermelon wide" is like a doctor who "saves lives and helps all living beings". With his brilliant "medical skills", he rescues "dying" patients. Once, after a rainstorm, Han Xinding, a villager in Xiaxipo Village, Jinshan Town, soaked nearly 200 mu of melon land in the water. The young melon seedlings stuck in the field and could not lift their heads. Han Xinding looked at these melon seedlings at a loss.

Liang Yakuan came. In view of this situation, he proposed measures such as ditching and drainage, cutting off diseased vines, applying fertilizers, spraying pesticides, and so on. After listening to Liang Yakuan's words, soon the melon seedlings came back to life, grew new roots and sprouts. This piece of melon land has not only avoided losses, but also increased revenue than expected.

In 2007, he took the lead in the establishment of Wenchang Watermelon Professional Cooperative and served as its chairman. Liang Yakuan said that the establishment of professional cooperatives can better organize farmers, unify the cultivation, management and sale of watermelons, reduce risks, increase income, and lead more farmers to become rich.

In addition, watermelon agricultural cooperatives take the form of equity participation, with the participation of both companies and farmers, sharing dividends according to shares. Liang Yakuan said that the company has technology, management and stable sales channels, while mobilizing farmers to participate has greatly expanded the planting area in a short period of time. The two sides complement each other's advantages and win-win cooperation.

Over the years, melon farmers in various parts of Hainan have asked Liang Yakuan to guide no less than hundreds of them, with a planting area of hundreds of thousands of mu. In recent years, Liang Yakuan has successively invested more than 10 million yuan, driving more than 50,000 workers to plant watermelons, with an output value of 500 million yuan and creating tax profits of more than 10 million yuan.

In Wenchang, in addition to "watermelon madmen" like Liang Yakuan, there are many melon farmers who have grown watermelons for decades. They have good skills in growing watermelons and go abroad to grow watermelons in other countries. Lin Daolong in Changsha Town is one of them.

Lin Daolong, 61, has been growing watermelons for 30 years. When he was young, he planted watermelons in Wenchang, Ledong, Lingshui, Dongfang and many other cities and counties. Since the cost of growing in Myanmar is half lower than in China, Lin Daolong and some melon friends came to Mandalay in 2006 to contract large tracts of land to grow watermelons and sell them to the domestic market after harvest every year.

Lin Daolong said that the soil in Wenchang is fertile, and the yield of watermelons per mu is about 8000 jin, while the yield per mu in Mandalay is 5000 jin, but due to cost and other reasons, he still chose the melon land in Mandalay. In a foreign country, Lin Daolong manages his own melon land attentively, exchanges his experiences with the locals, and sometimes instructs the locals on how to make the watermelons taste better and of better quality.