Why is pomelo so sweet? the Academician's recipe is really valuable.

Original title: the Academician "Formula" behind the Honey Pomelo Industry

Academician Deng Xiuxin is in the grapefruit field (file photo)

Winter is the season for eating grapefruit. A few days ago, the reporter learned in Pinghe County, Fujian Province that it is now the base with the largest planting area and the highest output of grapefruit in China, and has the reputation of "pomelo township in the world" and "pomelo capital of China".

"few people think that behind our high-yield grapefruit, there is actually the hard work and sweat of Academician Deng Xiuxin and his team. The seemingly small grapefruit hides the great wisdom of scientists. " In an interview with our reporter, Lai Wuping, head of the propaganda Department of Pinghe County, said so.

New problems in Laojiao Township

Guanxi honey pomelo has been cultivated for more than 500 years and was listed as a tribute to the imperial court during the Qianlong period. Since the 1990s, the local pomelo market has been growing.

"in 2014, the planting area of honey pomelo in our county reached 650000 mu, with an annual output of 1.15 million tons and an output value of nearly 5 billion yuan." Shen Shunlai, head of the county's Organization Department, told our reporter that in the current grapefruit market, Pinghe County occupies the largest market share, and its export volume is also the first in the country.

However, with the vigorous development of pomelo industry, local farmers have encountered many new problems in recent years.

Lai Wuping said that due to the long-term application of a single fertilizer, resulting in grapefruit nutrition imbalance, land acidification and other problems, fruit quality has declined. At the same time, the contradiction between the traditional "honey pomelo + fine pruning" cultivation mode and today's labor shortage has become increasingly prominent. In addition, the variety of grapefruit is too single, and the time for picking on the market is too concentrated to sell at a good price.

"therefore, how to solve the bottleneck of Guanxi honey pomelo industry has become a realistic problem facing our county." Lai Wuping said.

The "small" support of the "big" headmaster

How to realize the sustainable development of pomelo industry? High-end intellectual support is a breakthrough.

Fujian Science and Technology Association and grass-roots science and technology association organizations are acutely aware of this problem. In 2012, through the opportunity of the academic conference, they invited Deng Xiuxin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Huazhong Agricultural University, to visit the area.

Deng Xiuxin, the chief scientist of citrus industry system in China, has many years of research experience in citrus germplasm resources mining and fruit quality control. Seeing hundreds of thousands of acres of honey pomelo in the area, Deng Xiuxin shouted "unexpectedly." After exchanges, he set up an academician workstation in the Agricultural Bureau of Pinghe County to carry out scientific and technological assistance work.

Three years later, what has the academician team brought to the local pomelo industry?

"to be honest, it helps a lot." Shen Shun said that in the past few years, experts in the station have comprehensively tested the nutrient elements in Guanxi honey pomelo orchard, collected more than 300 samples for testing, and successfully developed magnesium deficiency correction technology. at present, the application area has reached 35000 mu, which can increase the rate of high-quality fruit by 5% per mu, increase economic income by 220 yuan, and 35000 mu can directly improve industrial efficiency by 7.7 million yuan.

In view of the problem of single fertilization, Deng Xiuxin team developed a series of special formula fertilizers and organic-inorganic compound slow-release fertilizers for flower protection, fruit protection, fruit protection and strong fruit of Guanxi honey pomelo, which were included in the subsidy project of "ten thousand mu of county construction, one thousand mu of town construction and one hundred mu of village construction", which increased the income of fruit farmers in the county by 240 million yuan.

At the same time, Professor Peng Xian, an expert at the station, devoted himself to the study of "falling head pruning method", which can save labor input, increase pruning efficiency by 3 to 4 times, and save 400 yuan per mu of pruning labor. The modern orchard machinery and equipment developed by experts can save labor investment by more than 15%, and is especially welcomed by growers.

High technology gives birth to new varieties

"with the help of academicians, the pomelo industry in our county has been given wings to take off." Shen Shunlai said.

Diseases and insect pests have always been the biggest threat to the pomelo planting industry, especially in this continuous mountain area, once the disease and insect pests break out, it is easy to spread to the whole pomelo forest. In order to solve this problem, Deng Xiuxin's team set up 500 mu demonstration orchards for the prevention and control of scab, yellow spot and Huanglong disease in Xiaoxi and Wenfeng towns to study in-depth pest control techniques.

At the same time, through the detection and testing of the pathogen of pomelo scab, experts have come to the conclusion that the pathogen is not the same as the quarantine objects in the imported fruits of the European Union, and the European Union has ruled out the detection of scab in pomelo according to the conclusion. this is of positive significance to the smooth export of pomelo.

In the research and development of new varieties, Deng Xiuxin's team also gave strong support to local growers. Traditional grapefruit meat is white, but the price is low. In recent years, Guanxi has independently cultivated red flesh honey pomelo, yellow honey pomelo and other new varieties. On this basis, Deng Xiuxin's team helped cultivate new varieties such as Sanhong honey pomelo and purple honey pomelo with higher market prices, and some varieties can be put on the market early and taste better, benefiting growers a lot.

"preliminary statistics show that after the academician station is stationed in Pinghe, the income of fruit farmers will be increased by 240 million yuan, and the per capita annual income of fruit farmers can be increased by 2800 yuan compared with before." Lai Wuping said that the local area is also actively creating facilities for the work of academicians, not only allocating 70 mu of experimental bases, but also building a 10-mu Jingbo Garden of pomelo varieties in Wuzhai Township, which is used for scientific research and research and new technology experiments before, during and after honey pomelo production. "in the future, with the deepening of academician's scientific research, it will bring more opportunities and challenges to Pinghe pomelo industry." He said. (our reporter Peng Kefeng)