The story of breeding expert Wang Hui pursuing his breeding dream

??? In 1995, his selection and breeding of the Xinong 84G6 wheat variety won the second prize of the Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. In 1999, his selection and breeding of the Xinong 1376 wheat variety won the first prize of the Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. In 2012 he was honored with the "Shaanxi Highest Science and Technology Achievement Award". In November 2015 he received the title of "2015 Person Who Moved Shaanxi"...

Now he is an elderly man past the age of seventy, yet he still works the wheat fields and devotes himself to research. The excellent breeding results won through half a century of arduous labor have not only made outstanding contributions to national food security, but also brought tangible well-being to the people.

He is the famous Chinese breeding expert and professor at Northwest A&F University, Wang Hui.

Facing the reporter, he was plain and sincere: "I must live up to these honors. Although I am old, as long as my health allows, I will still persist and keep this work going."

A dream takes root and sprouts in youth

In that era, the dream of most young people was to get into university. In 1964, Wang Hui was admitted to Northwest Agricultural College as he had wished. "After three years of natural disasters, I knew what it was like for farmers to go hungry, so studying agriculture came from the heart." Concerned for the villagers' food and clothing, Wang Hui chose the agricultural science major without hesitation.

During his time at university, Wang Hui treasured the opportunity to study especially dearly, leaving early and returning late every day. Students of agriculture would have to face production in the future, so besides studying theoretical knowledge, learning grassroots production techniques was also indispensable. In 1968, after graduating from university, Wang Hui entered a military farm for training and went through a difficult learning process, but the gains were also substantial. Through this practical training, Wang Hui acquired basic learning and mastery of practical production operations such as cultivation, breeding and field management, laying a solid foundation for his later wheat breeding research.

With love as the starting point, washing away the hardships of research with the joy of harvest

In 1987, Wang Hui was transferred to the breeding teaching and research group to do teaching, with research work as a side duty. So he began breeding research in the school's 2-mu breeding teaching experimental field. At first there was no experimental funding, so he made up for it with his own salary. When there was not enough manpower, he called on his family to serve as free labor. Every September he prepared the land, applied fertilizer, marked rows, divided plots and arranged experiments; in October he sowed; in winter and spring he carried out field observation and recording, disease resistance identification, pollination and hybridization, and field management; in summer he carried out harvesting, drying, indoor seed selection, experiment summaries and experiment arrangements... And so, day after day, year after year, Wang Hui began his field breeding career full of hardship and sweat.

This went on for more than several decades from the very start. In the wheat fields, he was the most plain and simple old farmer, drop after drop of sweat falling into the soil, blending with the wheat fields through the changing seasons into scene after scene of diligent labor, whether sowing, bending to the field or harvesting; in the laboratory in the evening, he was the most focused scientific expert, reviewing, recording and organizing the data observed in the wheat fields during the day. The agronomic characteristics of each wheat material, the speed of development, and so on, all these data were engraved in his mind, vivid before his eyes.

Looking during the day, summarizing at night, and forming an impression in his mind was a habit Wang Hui kept for many years. "If breeding work cannot achieve this, relying only on writing things down in a notebook is useless. In the end, the records and the person become separated," Wang Hui said.

If decades of hard field labor day after day and painstaking research were the key factors in Wang Hui's success, then his love for the cause of wheat breeding was the starting point of everything. From the initial simple and plain dream of solving the villagers' problem of food and clothing, to successfully developing many excellent wheat varieties and bringing real benefits to the people, he always had the people in his heart and never felt that he was making some kind of dedication or sacrifice. Everything was so natural. For him, the greatest reward was none other than seeing the scene of harvest. "Standing in the vast wheat fields of Xinong 979 and seeing the farmers' joy at harvest, my mood is like a breeze passing over the waves of wheat in golden autumn. That relaxed and joyful feeling can wash away all fatigue and hardship," Wang Hui said.

Leaving the wheat field and the laboratory, in order to bring the excellent varieties he had bred before the people and turn scientific research results into real productivity, he was also the most tireless person running about everywhere. Shaanxi, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu all bear his footprints.

Wang Hui said, "Although breeding is relatively hard, once a variety is successfully bred and you see its contribution to society, you feel very happy inside. There is bitterness and joy, but I think there is still more sweetness." Amid bitterness and sweetness, one variety after another came into being... From 1991, when his first wheat variety "Xinong 84G6" was born, to Xinong 1376, Xinong 2611 and Xinong 979, which passed national approval, and other wheat varieties, there were 11 in total, with a cumulative promotion area of more than 150 million mu, cumulative increased wheat output of more than 4 billion kg, and newly added output value of about 9 billion yuan.

Never forgetting teachers' kindness, devoted to passing on the breeding dream from generation to generation

An elderly man past the age of seventy could have retired after success and enjoyed a leisurely life. But Wang Hui never stopped, nor did he ever think of stopping. He said, "Breeding is a process of continuously fulfilling dreams, without end. I still want, through my own efforts, to dedicate more and better varieties to society."

He has inheritance in his heart: "I learned a great deal from the older generation of breeders at the local base and from my revered teacher Academician Zhao Hongzhang. Therefore, I also hope to pass on some of my unique insights in breeding, especially practical experience, to young people engaged in breeding work, so that they can grow quickly and play their due role as soon as possible, and also pass on the breeding sentiment of the older generation."

To young people engaged in wheat breeding, Wang Hui emphasized that wheat breeding must not only value experiments, but even more value field practice. He said: "Breeding work is like raising a child. If you do not come into contact with the child, you cannot understand the child's temperament. Wheat is the same. Only by frequently observing and recording can you know what problems this material has and from which aspects to improve it."

He also emphasized the need to conduct more production surveys and understand problems in production. He said: "Breeding is an exploratory and innovative kind of work. Whether this innovation truly meets the needs of agricultural production can only be determined through verification in production practice."

"Young people should have a truth-seeking and pragmatic scientific attitude. Scientific research itself may involve both failure and success. Only by working in a truth-seeking and pragmatic way, and objectively evaluating one's own work, can one recognize what needs effort and what needs to be overcome, and treat every link in one's work prudently. Only then can things be done solidly and well."