Remembering the "Taihang New Fool" Li Baoguo: The apple is red, and we think of you

The apple is red, and we think of you

-- The National Poverty Alleviation Day recalls Li Baoguo, the "New Fool of Taihang"

In the early morning of October 12, Li Baoguo's wife, Guo Suping, a researcher at the College of Forestry of Hebei Agricultural University, took a train from Xingtai to Baoding. The apples in Gangdi Village are about to ripen, and tomorrow she will take a few students to test the apples for pesticide residues to ensure the safety of the fruits entering the market.

From October 2 to 11, Guo Suping has been busy giving technical guidance to fruit farmers in Gangdi, Qiannanyu and other places. "This is the place where the baoguo fought before he died. Bao guo left suddenly, some of the things he wanted to do were not finished, and I wanted to do my best to help him complete. Guo Suping said.

Li Baoguo, professor and doctoral supervisor of Hebei Agricultural University, winner of the national honorary title of "People's Model", was praised by General Secretary Xi Jinping as "a model of communists in the new era, an excellent representative of intellectuals, and a new fool on the Taihang Mountain". He is committed to the ecological governance of the Taihang Mountains and the masses to get rid of poverty and become well-off, and has taken root in the Taihang Mountains for 35 years, using the hand of science and technology to turn stones into gold, making 1.4 million mu of barren mountains green, and leading 100,000 farmers to get rid of poverty and become rich.

On April 13, 2012, Li Baoguo explained the essentials of walnut tree pruning to farmers in Lincheng County. (Expansion film) Hebei Daily reporter Zhao Yonghui photo

He made science and technology truly become the "god of wealth" for mountain farmers to get rid of poverty and change their destiny.

As soon as the National Day passed, Liang Guojun and his family in Gangdi Village, Neiqiu County, Xingtai City, were busy picking bags for the apples in the orchard, and in another ten days, these apples would be sold in the market. In recent years, by growing apples, Liang Guojun's family has bought a car, built a new house, and bought a building for his son in the county seat.

"Years ago, I didn't have enough to eat and wear. Now, we can live such a good life, we should all thank the benefactor Teacher Li Baoguo! Liang Guojun sighed.

Li Baoguo, who grew up in the countryside, was the most unsightly for the people to be poor.

Li Baoguo was born in 1958 to a rural family in Wuyi County, Hengshui City. In 1981, as the first batch of college students after the resumption of the college entrance examination, Li Baoguo stayed on to teach after graduation from Hebei Forestry College (the predecessor of the Forestry College of Hebei Agricultural University). At that time, it was the school's decision to establish an industry-university-research base in the Taihang Mountains. Therefore, he actively responded to the call and walked into the qiannanyu village of Xingtai County, deep in the Taihang Mountains.

From here to the end of his life, Li Baoguo dedicated his life to the Taihang Mountains.

At that time, the Taihang Mountains had many stones, thin soil layers, no water cover, and frequent floods and droughts. Getting rid of poverty and getting rich has become a "major event in the hearts" of the masses in mountainous areas.

Looking at the "stone mountains" one after another, Li Baoguo "got on the bar" with the strength of yugong moving mountains, and he ran all over the ravines and ravines on the mountains to study ways to improve the land. In the end, the "land in the mountains" approach was successful in gathering soil and water flows. The soil in Qiannanyu is thicker and more watery, and the survival rate of tree planting has jumped from 10% to 90%.

Li Baoguo took advantage of the situation and guided the peasants to plant apples and chestnuts. Farmers can't plant, he will talk face to face, teach by hand... Over the years, Qiannanyu became a well-known wealthy village.

Li Baoguo believes that the overall well-off, the shortcomings are in the mountainous areas, and science and technology are the levers. In order to help the people of the Taihang Mountains get rid of poverty and become rich, he often gets up early and greedy, drills ditches and climbs mountains, and goes up the mountain without hindrance, and has achieved 28 research results, 18 awards at or above the provincial and ministerial levels, and the cumulative application area of technology is 18.26 million mu. He researched 128 standardized apple production and management processes for Gangdi Village, and the per capita annual income of villagers has reached more than 30,000 yuan from less than 100 yuan to more than 30,000 yuan for apple planting alone.

He "takes the car as his home", works day and night, travels about 40,000 kilometers a year, and in addition to completing the school's teaching tasks, he runs on the road almost every day. Once, in Shijiazhuang, he transferred 4,000 acres of apple orchards in one day to give technical guidance to farmers.

He "does not come for the sake of fame, does not go for the sake of profit, but has a heart and eyes for the people." In the promotion of forestry technology, he responded to every need, never charged a penny for lectures from farmers, and never took any shares in the enterprise. No matter when and where, whether you know or not, he sincerely helps to answer and help manage the farmers who consult with him. Once, a call for help from an ordinary walnut grower who had never known him could make him travel more than a thousand kilometers back and forth between the stars and nights.

Due to long-term running and fatigue, on April 10, 2016, Li Baoguo died of a heart attack and ineffective rescue, and his life was forever fixed on the journey of poverty alleviation.

However, from Fugang apples and green ridge walnuts, to Xingtaiqian Nanyu, Pingshan Huluyu... These brands lit by Li Baoguo with the hand of science and technology have illuminated the happiness of thousands of families in mountainous areas.

He left behind an inexhaustible spiritual wealth for future generations, and the spark of science and technology formed a burning trend

Li Baoguo left, but he used labor and technology to open up a way for the peasants to get rich, and also left behind the spiritual wealth that could not be learned to future generations. The spark of science and technology he ignited with wisdom, sweat and life is forming a burning trend.

In May 2016, Hebei Agricultural University took the lead in setting up the "Li Baoguo Volunteer Service Team", and the teachers and students of the university took Li Baoguo as an example and combined the professional characteristics of the discipline to carry out in-depth scientific and technological assistance activities. Up to now, the school has set up a total of 26 "Li Baoguo Volunteer Service Team" detachments, 122 squads, with a total of 953 members. The service team has connected and helped 105 former poor villages in the province through online consultation and on-site assistance, and the average service time per year has exceeded 100 hours.

As a core member of the "Li Baoguo Volunteer Service Team", in the past 5 years, Li Baoguo's scientific research team has traveled to more than 30 counties (cities, districts) in our province, working in the frontline of poverty alleviation for an average of more than 300 days a year, which not only consolidates the achievements of Li Baoguo's help before his death, but also builds 5 new demonstration bases in Luanzhou, Yixian and Luanping, and won 3 awards such as the second prize of the Ministry of Education for scientific and technological progress.

As Li Baoguo's wife and the main member of Li Baoguo's scientific research team, Guo Suping, who is more than 60 years old, has more than 300 days a year to run around various orchards and bases to teach advanced technology in fruit tree cultivation in a timely manner.

More than a month ago, during a fruit planting site observation meeting, Guo Suping accidentally fell, resulting in a bone fracture in her leg, and the doctor told her to rest more, otherwise she needed surgery. However, she refused to rest for a moment, and still walked around on crutches to give technical guidance to the growers. "This year's climatic conditions are special, I am not at ease with the orchard, and I always feel that I can only be steadfast when I look at my heart." Guo Suping said that after the comprehensive victory in poverty alleviation, she felt that the responsibility and pressure on her body were greater than how to consolidate and expand the results of poverty alleviation and effectively connect with rural revitalization, so that the people who had been lifted out of poverty could achieve sustained income growth.

More people took over Li Baoguo's "baton."

Gangdi Village set up a technical service team to walk the Eight-Hundred-Mile Taihang Mountains like Li Baoguo did before his death, providing face-to-face services around the needs of fruit farmers and point-to-point help. Similarly, Jiazhuang Village has also established the "Li Baoguo Science and Technology Agricultural Expert Team Workstation", in recent years, in addition to providing technical services to local fruit farmers, but also for Jiangsu, Beijing, Xinjiang and other more than 10 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions farmers to explain technology, solve problems, free large-scale walnut management technology training.

Jia Zhihua is a member of the "Li Baoguo Science and Technology Xingnong Expert Team Workstation", a native of Jiazhuang Village, Lincheng County, Xingtai City, and his WeChat nickname is "Science and Technology To Help Farmers". Before the outbreak of COVID-19, he spent more than 200 days a year giving free technical guidance to growers across the country. Nowadays, he has gone out less often because of the epidemic, but the contact with the fruit farmers on WeChat and on the phone is still continuous.

Jia Zhihua's WeChat circle of friends will send a photo of Li Baoguo almost every day. "Without Professor Li, I wouldn't be where I am today." Jia Zhihua said that due to poor family conditions, he dropped out of school at home after graduating from junior high school. Because of Professor Li, he was able to go to the College of Forestry of Hebei Agricultural University to learn about fruit tree management. After graduation, in order to help him accumulate practical experience, Professor Li would take him with him every time he went to the village to give a lecture. Later, their family got rid of poverty through science and technology.

"'We are engaged in fruit tree research, in the final analysis, we want to serve the peasants', Professor Li's words, I have always kept in mind, I also want to be like Professor Li, use science and technology to lead the villagers to get rich!" Jia Zhihua said. (Hebei Daily reporter Fang Suju)

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