A science and technology courtyard that solves people's livelihood, governs culture, and cultivates talents
China Agricultural University Committee of the Communist Party of China
A courtyard, three or five farmhouses, and a science and technology courtyard are inconspicuous in the vast fields.
Science and technology help agriculture, woo, the science and technology courtyard contains new quality energy.
In May 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a cordial reply to the students of the Science and Technology Academy of China Agricultural University, affirming the spirit of the young people of the Academy who went into the depths of rural China to "seek hardships for themselves" and the vivid practice of reconciling people's livelihood and culture, and encouraging the students to cultivate love for agriculture, practice the ability to rejuvenate agriculture, and contribute their youth strength to accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas and build a modern socialist country in an all-round way. The general secretary's reply letter aroused strong repercussions among the teachers and students of China Agricultural University, and the teachers and students of the university were deeply encouraged by their cordial care and ardent expectations.
In 2024, it will be 15 years since the establishment of science and technology courtyards, and at present, more than 1,200 science and technology courtyards have been established across the country. Over the past 15 years, the teachers and students of the Science and Technology Academy have built laboratories in the fields, so that the youth can take root in the fertile soil of the countryside, write their contributions in the land of the motherland, seek truth from facts and be down-to-earth, and contribute their own strength to accelerating the construction of an agricultural power and the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside.
Create a science and technology courtyard
In 2009, Professor Zhang Fusuo of China Agricultural University led a team of teachers and students to carry out field experiments in Baizhai, Quzhou County, Hebei Province. However, in the fields, the villagers are so far away from these "technologies". If you look at my experimental station, the crops are growing well and the yield is very high, while in the farmer's field across the wall, the crops have serious problems such as lodging, and the yield is very low. In the face of such a contrast, teachers and students have mixed feelings. Just last year, Professor Zhang Fusuo's team published more than 100 papers in important academic journals throughout the year, and the results were fruitful. At this time, Professor Zhang Fusuo soberly raised a series of questions: If we publish so many articles, can the villagers understand them? How many of the research results obtained in the laboratory (station) and the knowledge learned in the books can be used in the fields? How can they be used? Can the villagers accept it?
The teachers and students decided to stay and stay, teach knowledge, operate demonstrations, and answer these questions with practice together with their fellow villagers. This year, Professor Li Xiaolin of Professor Zhang Fusuo's team lived in the farm yard for more than 300 days, and truly became a "farmer" from a professor. Getting along day and night, the teachers and students gained the trust of the villagers, successfully demonstrated the scientific farming technology, and solved the problems encountered by the villagers in the field. The villagers said, you brought science and technology to our farm yard, let's call it "science and technology courtyard". The farmhouse courtyard where Professor Li Xiaolin took root became the first science and technology courtyard - Baizhai Science and Technology Courtyard.
Accumulate small steps, to thousands of miles, accumulate small streams, into rivers and seas. Over the past 15 years, the science and technology academies have flourished, from one to thousands, constantly igniting the enthusiasm of teachers and students to strengthen agriculture and serve the country. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important concept of "targeted poverty alleviation", more teachers and students have stepped out of the "ivory tower" and gone to the fields, eating, living and working with farmers, and serving farmers and the agricultural industry with "zero distance, zero time difference, zero threshold, and zero cost". "The countryside is a field full of hope and a broad stage for entrepreneurship, and higher agriculture and forestry education in the mainland has a lot to offer. "General Secretary Xi Jinping's reply letter in September 2019 to the secretaries, presidents and expert representatives of agriculture-related colleges and universities across the country further strengthened the confidence and determination of the teachers and students of the Science and Technology Academy to take root in the front line and serve rural revitalization. Over the past 15 years, the Science and Technology Academy has served nearly 600 poor villages, 48,000 poor households, and 177,000 poor people, and won the 3rd National Innovation Competition Award in 2023, and the "Promotion of Science and Technology Academy Model" will be written into the No. 1 Document of the Central Committee in 2024. Professor Zhang Fusuo won the Innovation Award of the National Poverty Alleviation Award in 2018. The Science and Technology Academy has also gone abroad and been promoted to Laos and 8 African countries, and has been promoted and applied to the world by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as a key case. Over the past 15 years, the teachers and students of China Agricultural University have grown together with the Science and Technology Academy, and realized their own life value in the great practice of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization.
- The picture shows that on May 13, 2023, in the Seedling Industrial Park of Quzhou County, Hebei Province, students of the Miao Paradise Science and Technology Academy are checking the soilless cultivation of vegetables. Xinhua News Agency reporter Yue Wenting/photo
Go to the village to solve the people's livelihood
Solving people's livelihood is the original intention of the Science and Technology Academy, and it is also the ardent expectation of farmers for agricultural science and education. Professor Zhang Fusuo, the initiator of the Science and Technology Academy, said, "We want to be 'real', and we must be 'real'. The word 'real' means that you wear a straw hat and go down to honestly help the people solve problems. Help one count one, help one count as one. "Over the past 15 years, the teachers and students of the Science and Technology Academy have gone deep into the countryside, gone to the villages, taught face-to-face, taught hand-in-hand, and helped the villagers learn science and technology with science and technology, from scientific farming, increasing production and income, to multi-production integration and rural revitalization, and practicing the original intention with real dedication.
The first thing the teachers and students of the Science and Technology Academy should do when they live in the countryside is to break the barrier of the "last meter" of agricultural technology promotion and help the villagers learn to farm scientifically. 64-year-old Lu Zengyin is a veteran of growing crops, and he must do his best in everything he does, but the 20 acres of land he contracted, no matter how hard he cares, the yield is always low. In the spring of 2009, when he learned the news of the construction of the Baizhai Science and Technology Courtyard, Lv Zengyin was very excited and a little skeptical. In order to verify the effect of the high-yield and high-efficiency technology introduced by the experts, he handed over two acres of land to Cao Guoxin, a student of the Science and Technology Academy, to cultivate, and the rest of the land was carefully tended by himself. "Watering more and fertilizing more, the wheat will definitely not be wrong", holding this traditional concept, Lu Zengyin "secretly" applied a lot of nitrogen fertilizer in the field, and the water was watered more than the two acres of land. Unexpectedly, when the harvest was measured, the yield of wheat per mu he planted was more than 50 kilograms lower than that planted by Cao Guoxin. "The timing of fertilization is not right, the amount is also large, and the wheat stalks grow taller, which causes lodging and affects the yield. Cao Guoxin's patient and meticulous explanation gave Lv Zengyin the concept of "scientific farming" for the first time. After that, Lu Zengyin fell in love with "science": he went to the field to observe the growth of crops when he had nothing to do; consulted the "teacher" in time after discovering problems; and actively went to the field school run by college students in the evening to listen to lectures...... Soon, with the help of the Science and Technology Academy, Lv Zengyin mastered the scientific planting method, and the yield per mu of wheat increased significantly in the second year.
Under the guidance of the teachers and students of the Science and Technology Academy, not only Lu Zengyin's fields have achieved high yields, but the planting concepts of the whole village have also changed, and the concept of scientific farming has gradually taken root in the hearts of the people. "Don't look at the use of water and fertilizer seeds, the yield is still high. Now many villagers in the village have gone out to work, but I can farm 100 acres of land at home, and my income is not low! With the backing of the science and technology courtyard, I have the energy to do anything. Lu Zengyin said proudly. "What could be more meaningful for the students of the University of Agricultural Sciences to teach farmers to farm scientifically and turn our research results into the joy of increasing farmers' production and income?" Cao Guoxin was also very pleased.
Single-handedness in agricultural production is inefficient and anti-risk is poor. In order to improve production efficiency, in addition to scientific planting, it is also necessary to let the villagers unite to take the road of large-scale operation. Help the villagers to change the mode of production and operation, establish a production cooperative, and become an upgraded version of the science and technology courtyard.
Hao Shuang used to be the director of the village committee of Xihe Village, Xiaokuan Town, Lishu County, Jilin Province. He set up a cooperative in 2008, but it mainly deals in agricultural materials, and Hao Shuang is at a loss how to really organize farmers. In 2009, two teachers, Mi Guohua and Rui Yukui from China Agricultural University, came to Xihe Village with several graduate students to establish a science and technology courtyard in Hao Shuangjia, which made his eyes shine: "I welcome the high-yield and high-efficiency experiments in our place, and also explore the road of modern agriculture and large-scale operation." In 2010, the Science and Technology Academy supported Hao Shuang to establish the county's first "Science and Technology Expert Compound", and Professor Mi Guohua personally served as the chief technical expert. "With the technical escort of the experts in the small courtyard, I boldly organized a group of like-minded villagers in the village to carry out large-scale operation, and the result was an average increase of 2,000 kilograms per hectare, while reducing the cost by 700 yuan, and saving costs and increasing efficiency by 3,500 yuan per hectare. This has allowed other farmers to see the real benefits and join the cooperative.
At the end of 2013, Wu Dali, a doctoral student of ISU Science and Technology Academy, joined forces with 10 advanced cooperatives to establish the "Bolifeng Planting Farmers Professional Cooperative Association" and appointed Hao Shuang as the executive vice president, which made Hao Shuang have a greater place to use and began to serve more than 40 member cooperatives, and also contributed to the transformation of agricultural farming methods, business methods and lifestyles in Lishu County.
Cultivating and strengthening the collective economy can better add impetus and vitality to the development of agriculture and rural areas. The Science and Technology Academy helps farmers develop and expand the collective economy by promoting the integration of rural production.
Xihuaizhuang Village, Yongledian Town, Tongzhou District, Beijing, is one of the most remote villages in the town. In 2020, with the support of Beijing, Xihuaizhuang Science and Technology Academy was officially established. At first, the villagers were suspicious of a group of "student dolls" in their early 20s. But the craftsmanship is not good, and you have to see the truth in the ground. The Science and Technology Courtyard introduced fruit radish, cherry tomatoes and other crop varieties to Xihuaizhuang Village, avoiding the risks brought by a single crop, improving land use efficiency, and achieving the first round of value-added. The students of the small courtyard also designed the "Xihuai Manor" trademark logo, catchy slogans and a variety of cultural and creative products for agricultural products, and worked hard from the sales channels, through offline group buying, online live broadcasting, opening online stores and other multi-channel sales of village characteristic agricultural products, the town party committee, the village party branch, and the science and technology courtyard made efforts at the same time to achieve the second round of value-added. In 2021, Xihuaizhuang Village successfully embarked on the road of transformation of quality agriculture, and the science and technology courtyard generated a total income of 340,000 yuan for the village, an increase of 3.4 times compared with 2020. In the past two years, the students of the small courtyard have continued to explore new planting schemes, and the varieties planted have become more and more abundant. In 2023, through the introduction of a variety of high-quality vegetable varieties, the planting will be diversified, and the collective income of the village will reach 1.03 million yuan. In the same year, the Science and Technology Academy launched the "Shared Vegetable Garden" adoption model by exploring the cultural and tourism resources of Xihuaizhuang Village. As a result, the science and technology courtyard drove Xihuaizhuang Village to try to integrate the development of the primary industry and the tertiary industry, and further helped the village's collective economic development and growth.
From version 1.0 to promote smallholder farmers to increase production and income, to version 2.0 to help industry rejuvenate agriculture, to version 3.0+ to promote the comprehensive development of rural revitalization, over the past 15 years, the science and technology institute has closely focused on the important needs of the development of "three rural" and contributed to accelerating the construction of a modern agricultural power with strong agriculture, beautiful countryside and rich farmers.
Down-to-earth learning
"Scientific research should not only pursue knowledge and truth, but also serve economic and social development and the broad masses of the people. The broad masses of scientific and technological workers should write their theses on the land of the motherland and apply their scientific and technological achievements to the great cause of realizing modernization. General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest teachings inspire the teachers and students of the science and technology academy to be down-to-earth, go deep into the masses, take root in the masses, promote work with learning, learn to learn, follow the real problems to find a breakthrough in teaching and scientific research, with real skills to help accelerate the integration of modern science and technology and traditional farming, let the power of science and technology break the ground with seeds, let the small yard support the agricultural science and technology innovation and application platform, and make a big article to serve the "three rural".
"Increase real knowledge and practice real skills in practice". This is Chen Guangfeng's request for himself. In 2014, Chen Guangfeng, a first-year doctoral student, was stationed in Leling Science and Technology Academy in Dezhou City, Shandong Province. When he first arrived, Chen Guangfeng did not understand the local dialect very well, nor did he know how to communicate with the peasants, so he had no way to solve the practical problems of agricultural production. One of the things that impressed Chen Guangfeng the most was that when he was guiding the wheat harvest with the technicians of the local agricultural bureau, an old man asked "why is my wheat empty?" and Chen Guangfeng racked his brains and did not know how to answer, and really felt the gap between theory and practice. In order to make up for his "shortcomings" in production practice, Chen Guangfeng worshipped local agricultural technology experts as teachers, studied hard technical experience, walked in the fields every day, chatted with fellow villagers, and collected various field production problems. In the past four years, Chen Guangfeng has carried out scientific research that is useful to farmers, can solve production problems, and boost agricultural development in line with the principle of "coming from production and going to production", constantly discovering problems and gradually clarifying research topics, and has published two high-level academic papers, and applied for the invention patent of "summer corn synchronous nutritional fertilizer". In the first year, the patented technology was popularized and applied in Leling City, saving 130,000 yuan of fertilizer investment for farmers, and in the second year, 12,400 acres were popularized and applied, saving 300,000 yuan of fertilizer investment for farmers.
Teachers and students plunged into the courtyard, used the land as a blackboard, used crops as teaching materials, built laboratories on the ridges, organically combined scientific principles with field practice, and centered on the science and technology courtyard, radiating the high-quality and high-level development of the surrounding rural areas with points and areas, and breaking out a development path with both science and practicality.
It is a typical example to focus on the "Erhai Science and Technology Conference" to help the green development of agriculture and rural areas around Erhai Lake.
However, in the past few years, the ecology of the lake in the Erhai Lake basin has been destroyed, and the clear Erhai Lake was once occupied by cyanobacteria, and agricultural non-point source pollution is an important factor causing this problem. In January 2015, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Gusheng Village, Wanqiao Town, Dali City, and emphasized that Erhai Lake must be protected. In January 2020, the general secretary visited Yunnan again and made an important instruction to "defend and guard the Erhai Lake". In order to solve the problem of non-point source pollution in agricultural production, Professor Zhang Fusuo led the team to Dali and plunged into the village. In February 2022, Gusheng Village Science and Technology Academy was officially established.
- The picture shows that on September 24, 2022, Professor Zhang Fusuo's team checked the growth of rice in the field with the responsible comrades of the local agricultural department and local villagers in Gusheng Village, Dali, Yunnan Province. Photo courtesy of China Agricultural University Zhao Yu/photo
As soon as the science and technology courtyard entered Gusheng Village, it began to comprehensively monitor and collect data on the governance of the Erhai River Basin, and started the "Erhai Science and Technology Conference Battle" focusing on the battle to defend the water quality of Erhai Lake, the battle of high-value agriculture, and the battle of rural revitalization. In view of the problem of non-point source pollution in Erhai Lake, the Science and Technology Academy, together with the country's top agricultural non-point source pollution prevention and control expert team, has built a "six vertical and seven horizontal" accurate monitoring system for non-point source pollution in the Paleozoan area, carried out the construction of a full-time, space-time and whole-process prevention and control technology model for agricultural and rural non-point source pollution, preliminarily revealed the impact of non-point source pollution on surface water quality, and established a precise analysis and systematic treatment model of non-point source pollution sources, which laid a good foundation for the next step of comprehensive treatment. In view of the problem that the green value of the planting industry in Erhai is not high and the high value is not green, the scientific research team of the Science and Technology Academy cooperated with the local government, enterprises and farmers to create a green and high-value synergistic planting model of "rice +", "tobacco +" and "fresh corn +" in the ancient area with the water environment safety threshold as the bayonet and the annual crop output value of 10,000 yuan per mu as the goal. In particular, it is worth mentioning that in 2022, the teachers and students of the small courtyard carried out green ecological rice planting for the first time, with a yield of 808 kg per mu, which is about 30% higher than that of conventional planting, and at the same time, the green ecological optimization model reduced the relevant indicators of farmland non-point source pollution by about 50%.
By the end of 2023, with the efforts of China Agricultural University, Yunnan Agricultural University, Southwest University, Yunnan University and other units, 15 science and technology academies have been established in the Erhai Basin, with a total of more than 100 students and more than 20 teachers stationed in Gusheng Village for a long time, with an average of more than 330 days per student per year, and more than 200 experts and scholars from all over the world often come to the academies for exchange and research. Teachers and students use science and technology to empower the protection of Erhai Lake and help rural revitalization, so that the agricultural industry in the Erhai Lake Basin is shifting from the traditional pursuit of output value and economic benefits to a new way of synergizing Erhai ecological environmental protection, high-value and efficient agriculture and common prosperity of farmers.
抓獄根本育英才
"What people to cultivate, how to train people, and for whom to train people" has always been the fundamental question of education. The education policy of the party and the state stresses: "Education must serve the socialist modernization drive and the people, and must be integrated with production and labor and social practice, so as to cultivate socialist builders and successors with all-round development of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor." "The Science and Technology Academy adheres to the unity of knowledge and action, practices the education policy of the party and the state, cultivates talents in the process of solving people's livelihood and governing culture, and has embarked on a broad road of combining education with production and labor and social practice, and combining intellectuals with the working masses.
"If all graduate students are engaged in theories in school and do not connect with production, then what will happen to the farmers in the future? This is what Xu Junping, a doctoral student at China Agricultural University, said to himself when he first entered the Science and Technology Academy. Xu Junping is one of the 12 student representatives of the Science and Technology Academy who wrote a letter to General Secretary Xi Jinping, and is also a well-known "corn expert" in Hangjinhouqi, Bayannur City, Inner Mongolia. From master's degree to doctorate, Xu Junping has been stationed in Hangjin Houqi Science and Technology Academy for 5 years. In the past five years, he has solved technical problems such as varieties, fertilizers, diseases and insects in the process of corn planting for farmers through demonstration experiments in the local area, and greatly improved corn yield. In order to benefit more farmers, he also worked with mentors and experts, Menghai Town and Hangjin Houqi Association for Science and Technology to innovate farmer training methods, and put forward the "Science and Technology Courtyard Full Coverage Farmer Training" program, leading the members of the Science and Technology Academy to go deep into the field to train farmers in planting technology for more than 100 fields, covering more than 1,000 farmers. Technological innovation and outstanding results in social services have made Xu Junping recognized by the local government and farmers. He has won the first "Hangjin Houqi Youth May Fourth Medal" and the "First Prize of Green Production Experimental Demonstration Work of Hangjin Houqi Whole Area Planting Industry" for two consecutive years. In 2023, he organized a local corn high-yield and high-efficiency competition to promote the increase of corn yield and help the construction of the national agricultural green development pilot area and agricultural modernization demonstration county in Hangjin Houqi.
After receiving the general secretary's reply, Xu Junping was very excited: "I am very glad that I chose to come to the science and technology courtyard to serve the 'three farmers'. For the students of our science and technology academy, self-seeking is down-to-earth and take the initiative. Going to the fields to do practical things for the people has allowed me to find the value and meaning of life. ”
The Science and Technology Academy has not only witnessed the growth and success of batches of students, but also transformed countless young teachers into better educators.
"Mr. Zhang, I want to challenge myself to stay in the science and technology courtyard for 3 months, to see the scientific research place that is different from the laboratory, and to see the gap between Chinese farmers and papers after a paper. In February 2022, Jin Kemo, a young teacher at China Agricultural University, knocked on the door of Professor Zhang Fusuo's office. Unexpectedly, Jin Kemo worked in the science and technology courtyard for two years.
After graduating as a postdoctoral fellow at Pennsylvania State University in the United States, Kim Kemo returned to his alma mater and became an associate professor at China Agricultural University. After listening to a lecture by Professor Zhang Fusuo calling on young teachers to go to the Science and Technology Academy, she discovered more possibilities on her scientific research path. After coming to the Science and Technology Academy, Jin Kemo took the graduate students to walk all over the streets and alleys of Gusheng Village, conduct research with the villagers, go to the field to check the experimental fields under the scorching sun, and carry out various trainings in the village, such as planting, diet, and e-commerce...... In the notebook, she recorded many "firsts" after arriving at the Gusheng Village Science and Technology Courtyard: on the 39th day, she carried out a large survey of Gusheng Village, organized the Bai Nationality Seedling Festival on the 99th day, held a farmer training meeting on the 154th day, established a physical party branch on the 262nd day, and established a "Green Field" propaganda group on the 327th day...... Here she becomes "omnipotent". "I didn't expect that I had so many skills, and the Science and Technology Academy is really a magical place that can stimulate the unlimited potential of young teachers and create infinite possibilities. She said with emotion.
- The picture shows that on August 17, 2022, in Lishu County, Jilin Province, two students from the Science and Technology Academy measured corn photosynthesis in the experimental field. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Nan
In the past two years, Jin Kemo has influenced his students with words and deeds, researching, visiting, eating closed-door soup, researching, visiting again, and opening his heart. The teachers and students went from being at a loss when they first arrived to chatting with the villagers, from following the teacher to leading the farmers, and gradually overcoming the "unsuitability" and becoming "locals". Their skin color is getting closer and closer to the locals, and their hearts are getting closer and closer to the villagers. "We have united multiple entities of government, industry, academia and research to form a top interdisciplinary team for rural revitalization in the country, based on the key issues of rural revitalization in ancient villages such as villagers' livelihoods, income increase paths, development puzzles, and village collective economy, and design and promote them from top to bottom, and strive to achieve synergy between the protection of Erhai Lake and the increase of farmers' income. Jin Kemo, who has become the person in charge of the Gusheng Village Science and Technology Academy, said, "With what I have learned, I have solved problems on the front line of the countryside, solved new problems in local agricultural development, built the laboratory in the field, and wrote papers on our land, I feel that I have never been more fulfilling." ”
After 15 years of development, the Science and Technology Academy has become a shining business card for talent training in China Agricultural University, and won the 2022 National Teaching Achievement Special Award in the field of graduate education. The 15 years of fruitful results can be summed up as "tearing down four walls, erecting four bridges, and embodying the four qualities", that is, tearing down the wall between schools and society, between disciplines and disciplines, between teaching and scientific research, and between teaching and learning; building bridges between schools and villages, between teachers and students and the masses, between problems and methods, and between theory and practice; A new way of social service "trinity". In the future, China Agricultural University will continue to thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important reply, deeply understand the strategic deployment of education, science and technology, and talents, further strengthen the function of science and technology academies to serve talent training, deepen the integration of agricultural science and education, and lay out science and technology academies clusters around the key areas of national rural revitalization and key development areas of agricultural and rural modernization, so as to make greater contributions to the construction of an agricultural power.
Source: "Qiushi" 2024/08
Author: China Agricultural University Committee of the Communist Party of China