Yan Shimin, a national grain pacesetter

From a poor farmer to the chairman of a large company with fixed assets of 80 million yuan, Yan Shimin's 47-year life is full of legends. In the saline-alkali land of his hometown Baihuahua, Yan Shimin led the villagers to the road of common prosperity by planting fields scientifically and cultivating improved varieties.

Yan Shimin (source: Liangyuanwang)

Looking through Yan Shimin's archives, we see a dazzling halo: China's outstanding youth spark leaders, Chinese township entrepreneurs, major grain growers of the Ministry of Agriculture, provincial outstanding contributors, provincial top ten outstanding youth spark leaders, provincial outstanding senior talents, provincial advanced science and technology workers, city top ten private entrepreneurs, city top ten outstanding youth, winner of the city's May 1 Labor Medal, Shangqiu Olympic torchbearer. Behind the honor is the sacrifice beyond ordinary people, is the unswerving struggle.

In 1961, Yan Shimin was born in Pantang Village, Lizhuang Township, Liangyuan District. 60% of the land in Pantang Village is saline-alkali land, which is called "ghost side land" by the masses. From an early age, Yan Shimin had a strong interest in the cultivation of crops and often planted melons and beans in the fields. Later, experts from the Shangqiu Institute of Agricultural Sciences were breeding corn seeds in Pantang Village, so he saw the opportunity to get close to the experts and asked this and that. The production team let him go out to study, and Yan Shimin became an agricultural technician in the production team.

After the land package reached households, Yan Shimin thought about planting cotton on saline-alkali land, raising the original one mu of lint from less than 5 kilograms to 52 kilograms. With the addition of animal husbandry and breeding, he became the first household in the township to plant and breed ten thousand yuan.

In 1982, Yan Shimin, who tasted the benefits of getting rich through science and technology, went to the Municipal Institute of Agricultural Sciences to pay homage to corn expert Zhou Kezhong and wheat expert Wang Xuewen. While conducting experimental research in the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, he led farmers in the village to breed and breed. In order to learn more, he used the 100000 yuan saved by his family to visit experts and professors at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Agricultural University, and Henan Agricultural University, and successively introduced new varieties such as "Lumai No.1". Increase the income of wheat by 30% and 50%. In 1983, he worked with expert Zhou Kezhong to develop a medium-and high-yield maize variety Yuyu No.1, which was popularized throughout the province in 1985 and later won the third prize for scientific and technological achievements in Henan Province.

In order to turn scientific and technological achievements into productive forces and lead the villagers to get rich together, Yan Shimin organized the villagers to join the ranks of seed breeding and cultivated, sowed and watered the villagers free of charge. At the same time, he merged 117 mu of land belonging to 39 people in 8 families of his family into one experimental plot. Since 1982, Yan Shimin has introduced more than 140 new wheat varieties (lines), more than 60 new vegetable varieties such as tomato, pepper, eggplant, zucchini and celery, and 30 new cotton varieties as well as new varieties such as sorghum, rice and soybeans, turning the barren land into fertile fields. The city and district have held observation and exchange meetings in Pantang Village many times to promote the experience of the village.

In May 1999, in order to attract more talents to engage in scientific research in rural areas, he invested 3.8 million yuan to build Yanzhuang Science and Technology New Village. The new village has a construction area of 4653 square meters, which is divided into office area, living area and living area. The villagers get paid according to their work, unify housing and unify their work clothes. We live in harmony, respect and love each other, make concessions and forgive each other, perform their respective duties and fulfill their respective responsibilities. Yanzhuang Science and Technology New Village has become a beautiful scenery in the construction of a new socialist countryside.

Scientific and technological innovation is endless. Since the 1990s, Yan Shimin has successively established Shangqiu New crop Variety extension Station, Shangqiu crop New Variety Research Institute, and Shangqiu Branch Center of Henan New crop Variety Test and Exhibition Center. On this basis, established Henan Huahui seed Industry Co., Ltd., the company construction area of more than 9000 square meters, is a collection of scientific research and processing as one of the agricultural science and technology industrialization private enterprises. The company is currently carrying out a series of scientific and technological innovation projects, involving biotechnology engineering, seed science and technology engineering and so on.

Science and technology are on the way to becoming rich, and gold is also born in saline-alkali land. According to incomplete statistics, since 2001, Yan Shimin has held 25 training courses for scientific and technological personnel, more than 30 scientific and technological lectures, trained 18000 personnel, bred and popularized 16000 kilograms of new crop varieties, and popularized an area of more than 8.5 million mu. This has increased farmers' income by 390 million kilograms of grain, cotton, oil, vegetables and fruits, increased income by more than 900 million yuan, and benefited more than 48000 farmers.