In five years of poverty alleviation, the science and technology express train helps farmers get rich
Tang Weibing's wife shows reporters that the vegetables in the greenhouse using polymer film (right) are larger and higher-yielding than those in ordinary greenhouses. (Photo by reporter Mou Min)
**Website News (Reporter Mou Min) There is a subsidy of 10,000 yuan per mu of greenhouse, a subsidy of 2 yuan per square meter of polymer film, plus the extra money earned from one mu of vegetables... At noon on June 1, Tang Weibing, a vegetable farmer from Qinggedahu Township, High-tech Zone (Xinshi District), finished his work in the field and squatted at the edge of the field doing accounts: if he builds two more greenhouses next year, all using polymer film, the vegetable quality will improve, and he will earn a lot more.
As Urumqi's main vegetable production base, the High-tech Zone (Xinshi District) has 96,000 mu of cultivated land, including 75,000 mu of vegetable area, with an annual vegetable output of 300,000 tons. Income from growing vegetables is the main source of income for vegetable farmers like Tang Weibing.
"In the past two years, with favorable policies and various subsidies in place, especially with the help of science and technology, we vegetable farmers have higher and higher incomes and better and better lives," Tang Weibing said.
Tang Weibing has lived in Qinggedahu Township since childhood and started growing vegetables after graduating from junior high school. In 2010, his family's annual income was more than 50,000 yuan, and last year it increased to 100,000 yuan. He said that although it is just growing vegetables, whether there is science and technology makes a big difference.
Take the polymer film used this year as an example. In two greenhouses each covering 6 fen, covered on the same day and planted with seedlings on the same day, the greenhouse using polymer film harvested more than 4 tons of baby cabbage, more than one ton more than the ordinary film greenhouse, earning 2,000 yuan more.
The polymer film is a high-tech industrial project introduced by the High-tech Zone (Xinshi District) in 2014. It has advantages such as strong heat preservation and good light transmission. At the same time, its transmission rate for ultraviolet rays of different wavelengths can also play a pest-killing role. Its diffuse scattered light can make plant photosynthesis stronger, and the vegetables in every corner of the greenhouse grow evenly.
Tang Weibing is not the only one benefiting from the polymer film. At the beginning of this year, the High-tech Zone (Xinshi District) launched a pilot activity to promote the application of polymer film in Qinggedahu Township, Liushihu Township and Anningqu Town, with 500 mu of greenhouses to be promoted in the first phase. Each mu of greenhouse uses 1,100 square meters of film, and each square meter of film sells for 4.19 yuan, with a government subsidy of 2 yuan.
In addition, each township in the High-tech Zone (Xinshi District) has a farmers' night school, and in winter there is also "Science and Technology Winter" training, inviting experts from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, agricultural leaders and others to teach farmers, and offering courses on current affairs and policies, laws and regulations, and planting and breeding technical skills.
Science and technology benefiting farmers has let Tang Weibing taste the sweetness: "Just like the training teacher said, agriculture + science and technology is the way to get rich. If we farmers want our pockets to bulge, we must board the science and technology express train."
The High-tech Zone (Xinshi District) has a total agricultural population of 42,000. In recent years, the district has deeply implemented the structural reform of the agricultural supply side, vigorously promoted technological innovation in agriculture and animal husbandry, and raised the scientific and technological level of agriculture and animal husbandry. In 2011, the per capita net income of farmers and herdsmen was 9,100 yuan, and in 2016 it grew to 20,310 yuan, with both income and growth rate ranking first in the city.
â–ˇReporter's notes
Science and technology moisten things silently
The report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the foundation lies in agriculture, the difficulty lies in rural areas, and the key lies in farmers.
Innovation is productivity, and science and technology can bring innovation. Passing popular science knowledge to the fields and countryside, applying science and technology products to agricultural production, and letting farmers master the power of science and technology can improve farmers' grasp of advanced production skills and powerfully promote agricultural modernization.
Agriculture + science and technology, agriculture + the Internet, the e-commerce trend for agricultural products they bring, and the further deepening of new media marketing for agriculture all bring new paths for traditional agriculture.
Science and technology helping agriculture and benefiting farmers, like moistening things silently, lets the sweet rain of new technologies, new varieties and new ideas fall into farmers' hearts, and just like their crops, take root and sprout on the vast land. (Reporter Mou Min)