Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
Recently, Zhu Weiping (second from left) came to the orchard of Luodong Artisan Town in Conghua District, Guangzhou City, and worked with Wu Jingquan (first from left) and Zhang Jiayu (first from right) to investigate the effect of using Chinese herbal agricultural techniques to control needle bees. Photo by Kwong Yan Shan
Chinese researchers are committed to combining traditional agronomic wisdom with modern scientific research methods and applying agricultural production to improve the yield and quality of agricultural products and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Since January 2021, the relevant scientific research team has conducted a one-year effect test on zhuweiping plant-derived pesticide technology in Luzhai County, Liuzhou, Guangxi Province, on the treatment of citrus huanglongbing disease.
The picture shows the growth of citrus trees after treatment with plant-derived pesticides. (Source: "Study on the Effect of Chinese Herbal Medicines in Citrus Yellow Dragon Disease Control")
Zhu Weiping and his "harvest bottle"
Needle bees are very cunning and can invade nearly 200 species of fruits and vegetables. If you're a grower, you'll hate it. Needle bee larvae that burrow into the fruit can cause a large number of fruit drops. In the Asia-Pacific region, needle bees are the number one pest of horticultural crops. People use pesticides and traps, and then use all kinds of yarn nets or carry their natural enemies, in short, they hurt their brains.
Zhu Weiping is a doctor of agronomy with 27 years of experience in agricultural microbiology research. In Guangzhou, he is known as an expert in Chinese herbal agricultural technology. In the long-term "opposite" agricultural plant protection practice of needle bees, Zhu Weiping used another idea and method.
Zhu Weiping developed the "Chinese Herbal Insect Repellent", which can spray diseased plants with fog or put them into plastic bottles and hang them on fruit trees; and then use another liquid to promote plant growth. Zhu Weiping also taught farmers to make their own microbial fertilizers. These fertilizers made from leftover waste and Chinese herbal medicines, as long as used correctly, can significantly improve the soil ecology, induce plants to grow new roots, and restore vitality. In 2020, Zhu Weiping applied for an invention patent for this new Chinese herbal medicine extraction technology. Many orchards in Guangdong, Guangxi and other places are now hung with such "harvest bottles".
Near the "May Day" holiday, the orchards in the south began to be lively. Fruit farmer Wu Jingquan has a large fruit papaya garden in Luodong Artisan Town, Conghua District, Guangzhou. He and Zhu Weiping turned on the camera so that I could see the effect of the Chinese herbal medicine control needle bee technique on the spot.
The fruit papaya, also known as papaya, which is native to South America, has fast results and high yields, and can be used for fruit, vegetables and even medicine. But this all depends on a premise: it can prevent insect pests such as needle bees. Wujingquan has more than 2,000 papaya trees. The early southern summer sky is covered with thick rain clouds, and the dense canopy of trees and cascading papaya fruits in the garden are not visible at a glance. According to the farmer's calculations, after the use of Chinese herbal medicines and fertilizer methods, the fruit tree has strong drought resistance, few diseases and insect pests, and a fruit tree can bear about 200 catties of papaya.
If you don't use this method, what is the result of the comparison? Wu Jingquan calculated on the spot: the output is roughly only 1/4 of the current, that is, it will reduce production by 70%.
Why is this so? The key is in the "smell"!
The fruit of the papaya tree near the ground will ripen first, and a cluster of new green fruits will continue to extend into the canopy, like this 3 times a year. But at each stage, needle bees may be invited to build nests. As a result, fruit growers began to use "Chinese herbal insect repellent", using the smell emitted by the liquid to expel needle bees. It's a lot like people light mosquito coils in the hot summer months to simply and effectively drive away biting mosquitoes.
Zhu Weiping and Wu Jingquan took me around the orchard, looking for those inconspicuous medicine bottles. They look like ordinary beverage cans, except that the bottle mouth is covered with small holes. According to reports, the "Chinese herbal insect repellent" bottle drives away the needle bees through a special smell, and the "harvest bottle" promotes plant growth, flowering, and fruit, and improves the vitality and disease resistance of plants. On the fruit tree where the bottle of "Chinese herbal insect repellent" is hung, it can be clearly seen that the papaya fruit will fall due to the infestation of needle bees when it is very small, delimited by the hanging bottle, and the effect is completely different. The fruit tree I saw was planted in April 2021 and was not only sprayed using The Chinese herbal scent deworming method, but also atomized with fertilizer concocted by Traditional Chinese medicine. Wu Jingquan counted at the scene: not counting the first batch of fruits that have been plucked, a tree full of more than 40 papayas is really gratifying.
Zhu Weiping's ideas and methods show the eco-friendliness of plant-derived pesticides with a long history and their position in contemporary social development: they can provide obvious effect advantages and create a sustainable development environment. Zhu Weiping did not use the means of blindly "killing" to "oppose" the needle bees, and also ensured a bumper harvest and the safety of people and livestock. Today, when the mainstreaming of biodiversity is accelerated around the world, plant-derived pesticides are receiving more and more attention and have become a hot direction for the research and development of new pesticides. In the orchard of Wu Jingquan, I also interviewed the citizens who came to pick randomly. They said that with the gradual easing of the local epidemic, the environment without chemical pesticide pollution and the scene of a bumper harvest attracted many tourists. "Clean", "assured" and "sweet", making the papaya garden a sightseeing and leisure destination.
With a little pride, Zhu Weiping smiled and said, "This is a very clever technological innovation that 'unites heaven and man'. ”
Evolving Chinese Plant Health Concepts
The first time I met Cao Xingsui, a researcher at the China Agricultural Museum, was deep in the Mountains of Qinling. In 2010, we went to visit the Sichuan-Shaanxi Rice Cangdao Road, which attracted attention with the application of the ancient Shu Road. At that time, the "Globally Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage" was just a sprout. From 1998 to 2013, Cao Xingsui served as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference for three consecutive years. The deepest impression that "Member Cao" left on me along the way was that he repeatedly asked me to care about agricultural cultural heritage. Since then, a group of Chinese scientific and technological workers have been committed to discovering China's traditional agricultural wisdom in a new cultural heritage atmosphere, and sincerely look forward to the opportunity to share it with agricultural producers around the world.
"Before the introduction of modern agricultural technology, China's traditional agriculture has always used organic fertilizers, and pest control is based on traditional biopesticides. We don't use synthetic fertilizers or synthetic pesticides. Cao Xingsui repeatedly emphasized this grand historical background. Contemporary archaeological results have found traces of silkworm cultivation and rice cultivation by ancient Chinese ancestors 7,000 years ago. China's agricultural experts believe that after thousands of years of evolution, the farming system can still maintain the fertility of the soil, produce enough food, and ensure the basic needs of society, which contains the wisdom and future of sustainable development.
Zhu Weiping's use of plant-derived pesticides and the use of microbial fertilizers to improve the soil are related to history and traditional wisdom? "It's one and the same. This can be done because we still subscribe to the concept of 'the unity of heaven and man' while using contemporary technological means. "Cao Xingsui looks at the unique research and development path of Chinese scientific and technological workers from a cultural perspective: in traditional Chinese agronomic thinking, people especially emphasize the coordinated development with the environment." Our traditional agriculture places special emphasis on the relationship between man and the natural environment. Our ancestors paid special attention to maintaining the quality and fertility of the soil, and even had a complete industrial system. In Cao Xingsui's view, Zhu Weiping uses natural resources, seeks ecological balance and mutual adaptation, and also gains environmental friendliness – this method of paying more attention to the overall situation and paying more attention to overall coordination is the fit between the concept of "the unity of nature and man" and the construction of ecological civilization.
Cao Xingsui believes that on the topic of plant health that is of global concern, Chinese science and technology workers should have a loud enough "voice".
"We want to explore the contemporary value of this traditional production system, such as ecological environmental pollution, crop quality decline, singleness of planted varieties, and weakening of crop variety resistance... These shortcomings in modern agriculture can find wisdom and countermeasures from agricultural traditions. Cao Xingsui appealed.
Traditional agricultural wisdom hopes to "get out of the deep boudoir"
The United Nations has designated 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health, with the goal of promoting the protection of plants from pests and diseases and ensuring that plants continue to grow and reproduce in their natural habitats. Subsequently, Zambia and other countries once again proposed to designate May 12 as the International Day of Plant Health. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, up to 40 percent of the world's food failures are currently due to plant pests and diseases, and the decline in agricultural production has exacerbated the already growing problem of global hunger. In recent years, trade, climate change, and decades of agricultural intensification have led to a decline in the resilience of production systems, which has had more adverse effects on plant health.
"After entering the stage of industrial production, the use of fertilizers and synthetic pesticides has indeed brought about the troubles that must be faced." Cao Xingsui analyzed. Due to the long-term use of pesticides and fertilizers, there is a comprehensive problem of non-point source pollution of cultivated land; while killing insects, pesticides and fertilizers also pose a great threat to people and livestock; heavy pollutants remain in the soil, resulting in continuous use of land.
Protecting plant health is already a global ecological and biodiversity topic. In the view of Experts on China's Agricultural Cultural Heritage, it is difficult to easily find countermeasures from the perspective of economy and agricultural technology alone, and it is more important to seek answers from the cultural view of the relationship between man and nature.
According to data released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the most destructive transboundary plant pests and diseases in the world currently include: desert locust, grassland moth, fruit fly, banana yellow leaf disease tropical type 4, cassava disease and wheat rust. In addition to needle bees (fruit flies), banana yellow leaf disease (banana Panama disease) is also the focus of Zhu Weiping's prevention and treatment of secondary metabolic therapy using Chinese herbal medicine and microbial techniques and Chinese herbal medicines. Zhu Weiping found that some components in Chinese herbal liquids such as perilla, banlan root, and wild chrysanthemum have bacteriostatic and bactericidal effects, which can effectively control the pathogens of banana Panama disease; in addition, the use of Chinese herbal medicine to initiate secondary metabolic therapy can stimulate banana trees to produce disease resistance. These technologies, which use natural raw materials, are low-cost, easy to operate, and have an environmentally friendly approach.
On April 13, after repeated experiments, Zhu Weiping formally filed a patent application for "a method for preventing banana Panama disease.".
So, why are innovative methods such as Zhu Weiping's so far that they have not really "come out of the deep boudoir" and are difficult to be widely recognized and widely accepted around the world?
"That's because in their case, there is no same tradition and culture of using plant pesticides." Cao Xingsui judged this way.
Although China has a long history of using plant-derived pesticides, and this agricultural wisdom is also circulated in East Asia and some Southeast Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, chemical synthesis methods are still in the most important position in the world.
Plant-derived pesticides also have their own "flaws": traditional Chinese agricultural techniques based on experience are easy to imitate, and commercial promotion relies more on administrative or intellectual property protection. Although many methods are convenient and easy, light and temperature will quickly degrade the effect of the drug; in order to maintain the efficacy, it is necessary to add the same plant-derived shading agent and adhesive to the liquid. Due to the lack of sufficient R&D manpower and financial resources, many of the current research results have not yet reached the requirements of broad-spectrum and standardized mass production.
Broad spectrum and standardization are a higher "threshold". "If a drug can only be used for a specific type of fruit and control of an insect, the promotion value of this drug is very limited, and the next step is to develop a wide-spectrum drug that is universally applicable." Taking Zhu Weiping's technological innovation as an example, Cao Xingsui further analyzed: "If large-scale production is carried out, it is not only necessary to solve many standardization problems, but also to consider whether the market can provide stable and sufficient production raw materials." ”
This is not just the pressure that Zhu Weiping is facing, but also the need for more social resources to provide support.
Agricultural cultural heritage becomes an important "bridge"
Through Zhu Weiping and his "harvest bottle", the process of Chinese agricultural science and technology workers absorbing traditional wisdom, innovating contemporary plant health concepts and exploring and practicing can be roughly depicted, and then it can also be recognized that in the construction of ecological civilization, agricultural cultural heritage has been given new missions and new opportunities.
To this day, the agricultural ideology and production method of "the unity of nature and man" are still active in all aspects of China's agricultural production, such as fertilization, breeding, and seed rotation. Zhu Weiping and Cao Xingsui spoke very emotionally about the construction of ecological civilization and the future of sustainable development, and firmly believed that China's agricultural wisdom will surely benefit more people around the world.
This allows agricultural cultural heritage to more accurately serve as a "bridge" and platform for the realization of these aspirations. On the one hand, the value system of agricultural cultural heritage helps to enhance the application and transformation ability of traditional agricultural wisdom, and provides multi-faceted support in scientific research systems, cultural atmosphere, resource chains, technical support and partnerships, dissemination and popularization, and support for farmers around the world; on the other hand, agricultural cultural heritage can strengthen international exchanges and multilateral cooperation, so that people can calm down, listen to each other, learn from each other, and jointly find paths and methods for sustainable development.
Zhu Weiping will also spend a lot of energy on public teaching of agricultural technology and popularize microbial fertilizer technology to farmers. Because it combines the familiar traditional method of fertilizer and uses daily meal waste as raw materials, it is easy to promote and progress quickly. "The best way is to let scientific and technological personnel communicate directly with farmers." This is the trick to doing a large-scale rollout. Zhu Weiping said.
While communicating by video in the papaya garden, I met Zhang Jiayu of the Guangzhou Conghua Yuanheng Modern Agricultural Professional Cooperative next to him. The cooperative has spread Zhu Weiping's chinese herbal agricultural techniques for needle bees control and crop growth to more than 60 growers, reducing the cost of medicinal use while also reducing the pollution of soil and water bodies caused by the use of chemical pesticides.
As an alternative to the research and development of chemical pesticides, biopesticides have developed a variety of types such as agricultural antibiotics, microbial pesticides, plant-derived pesticides, biochemical pesticides and natural enemy insect pesticides, plant growth regulators. Zhu Weiping's "Chinese herbal insect repellent" belongs to plant-derived pesticides, and "harvest bottles" belong to growth regulators made of pure Chinese herbal medicines. He firmly believes that his technology can reduce and replace those chemical pesticides that are "completely ineffective" or "more than worth the loss", helping farmers achieve zero growth in chemical pesticides and fertilizers. In Conghua, Zhu Weiping's technology is also used in sugar oranges, lychees, green dates, dragon fruit, lychees and other orchards, with a demonstration area of more than 400 mu... In fact, this has initially formed a regional and relatively complete application chain and system.
Perhaps, in the development framework of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, a new model different from the large-scale production of chemical pesticides will slowly mature: low-cost, fast-acting biopesticide products for a certain region and certain organisms will show obvious local advantages, and can also become market protagonists and show promising development prospects.
Just like Zhu Weiping was doing.
Chinese Agronomical Thought on the Unity of Heaven and Man (Extended Reading)
The Chinese nation has created a brilliant agricultural civilization. Chinese have long recognized that agriculture is the product of the interaction between man and nature, with strong dependence on the regional environment. Therefore, agricultural production must follow the laws of nature and crop growth and development, and coordinate the contradictions between the external environment and biological organisms. If you violate the laws of nature, it is like "entering the spring to cut wood, climbing the mountain to ask for fish", and you will not get anything. Therefore, in China's agricultural production wisdom, special emphasis is placed on the organic coordination of the three "heaven and earth people", which is considered to be a prerequisite and necessary condition for agricultural production to achieve more with less.
For thousands of years, in this part of China, most of the farmland has basically not been exhausted and degraded, and even planted more and more fertilizer, which is a miracle in the history of world agriculture. The ancient rotation, replanting, intercropping, and set-seeding techniques, as well as the arable land rotation fallow system, are all good traditions that conform to the laws of nature and the sustainable use of land. ( Reporter Qi Xin )
People's Daily Overseas Edition (11th edition, May 9, 2022)