Jiangsu’s agricultural experts support spring farming

2022-04-14 18:02:00

In the spring farming season, agricultural experts from Nanjing Agricultural University in Jiangsu Province have been busy promoting new crop varieties, technologies and practices to help farmers secure a bumper harvest.

Photo/Zhai Huiyong

Sanya City in South China’s Hainan Province is home to a rice breeding base ran by the university’s Rice Research Institute. Professor Liu Xi from the institute has led a team to do research at the base, spending a lot of his time in the paddy field to check the growth of a new rice variety.

He said the university has some 30 students and 100 graduates doing research in Sanya usually in late November with rice seed harvested from Nanjing, Suzhou, Xuzhou and Lianyungang cities. Then in late April, the new rice seed harvested in Sanya will be brought back to regions in Jiangsu for growing in May, which accelerates the breeding process.

It’s also the harvest season at the soybean breeding site of the university’s Sanya Research Institute. The National Center for Soybean Improvement, led by academician Gai Junyi, has carried out breeding programs at the site. A new variety of soybean achieved a yield of 250 kilograms per mu, far exceeding the domestic average yield of about 135 kilograms per mu.

Professor Li Ganghua of the university, head of a precision rice-farming team, has attended several seminars to help farmers get a better yield. He usually summaries the problems in past production, offers technical solutions to rice farmers, and shares the practices of applying the exact and correct amount of inputs to increase productivity.

Associate Professor Cai Jian from the university’s wheat cultivation team said the team provides comprehensive technical solutions for large-scale wheat farmers, help connect them with flour processors and trading platforms, and also offer one-stop services such as wheat testing, storage, financing and sales.

Gu Jun, director of the Technology Application Department of Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said the academy has sent 105 technicians to villages to support spring farming. Efforts have also been made to share guidelines online and organize on-site training.