The scientific research life of farmer-scientist Zhao Zhendong
??? Xinhua News Agency, Jinan, June 13 (Report): Papers written in the fields, results left in farming households - a profile of Zhao Zhendong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering
Xinhua News Agency reporter Ye Jing
In the harvest month of June, wheat waves turn golden. Whether on the land of Qilu or in the northern frontier and southern lands, the figure of a septuagenarian can be seen year-round in the vast farmlands, through cold and heat, wind and rain. The famous high-quality wheat varieties he bred, such as "Jimai 22," have been promoted over a cumulative area of more than 400 million mu, solved the food problem for more than 100 million people, and added more than 40 billion jin of wheat and more than 40 billion yuan in economic benefits. He is the "farmer-scientist" who "writes his papers in the wheat fields and leaves his results in farming households" - Zhao Zhendong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
"Curled up in the car he 'wilts,' but once in the wheat field he 'revives'"
Wheat harvest season, gold everywhere; wheat harvest busy, grain fills the barns. Every year's summer harvest is also the busiest season for agricultural breeding workers. Zhao Zhendong, already past seventy and leaning on a cane, is no exception.
Zhao Zhendong is 74 years old this year and has been engaged in wheat breeding for 32 years. This reporter recently followed Zhao Zhendong to Laizhou City, Shandong Province, to inspect the seedling conditions. The drive from Jinan took about 4 hours. Along the way the sky was high and the clouds were light, but Zhao Zhendong had no heart to admire the scenery and kept changing his sitting position. "It's an old problem. From the waist down, the hip bones and knee joints, there is not a single spot that does not hurt," Zhao Zhendong explained.
Li Genying, a member of the breeding team who has worked with Zhao Zhendong for many years, told the reporter: "Teacher Zhao is like wheat. Curled up in the car he 'wilts,' but once in the wheat field he 'revives.'"
Sure enough. As soon as they arrived at the destination, Zhao Zhendong nimbly got out of the car with his cane and strode toward the wheat field. In the blink of an eye as the reporter closed the car door, he had already walked to the very front of the crowd.
The small paths in the wheat field are hard to walk, one step deep and one step shallow, yet Zhao Zhendong walked very steadily. When he discovered a "new situation," Zhao Zhendong would bend down, sweep his arm in a circle to check the elasticity of the wheat stalks and the disease and pest conditions at the roots; then grab a handful of wheat ears with his palm and squeeze them to check their tightness; finally he would casually pick a wheat ear, remove a few grains, and put them in his mouth to bite...
Once this set of "routine motions" was completed, the data on disease resistance, lodging resistance, grain filling, and gluten strength of the wheat in this experimental field had already been recorded in Zhao Zhendong's mind. Years on the front lines in rural areas have made Zhao Zhendong's intuitive judgment of wheat field conditions as precise as an instrument.
"Teacher Zhao is away on business more than half of the year, either selecting seeds in wheat fields or inspecting seedling conditions in various provinces. Since the beginning of this year alone, he has already traveled to nearly 10 provinces including Beijing, Hebei, Henan, and Jiangsu," said Cao Xinyou, Zhao Zhendong's scientific research secretary. "The more it is bitter winter or scorching summer, wind, frost, rain or snow, the more he must go to the fields to see whether the wheat has lodged, become diseased, or been frozen. Even as a young person, I often find it hard to sustain the physical and mental energy, but Teacher Zhao has never complained of hardship or shouted of fatigue."
??? "Of every 2 Shandong steamed buns, 1 is made with 'Jimai 22'"
When Zhao Zhendong is mentioned, some farmers may not know him, but when it comes to "Jimai 22," farmers praise it endlessly: this variety is especially good, particularly for high yield, cold resistance, lodging resistance, disease resistance, and resistance to dry hot winds...
"In Shandong, of the 2 steamed buns you eat, 1 is made with 'Jimai 22,'" said Liu Jianjun, a wheat expert at the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Since 2009, "Jimai 22" has ranked first nationwide in winter wheat planting area for 6 consecutive years, becoming the wheat variety with the largest annual application range in China over more than 30 years. As of now, it has been promoted over a cumulative area of 210 million mu, accounting for about 15% of the Huang-Huai wheat region, the main wheat-producing area in China, and about 50% of Shandong's wheat area.
"Jimai 22" is only 1 of the many wheat varieties bred by Zhao Zhendong's team. Others such as "Jinan 17," "Jimai 19," and "Jimai 20" are also very famous.
Liu Jianjun introduced that "Jinan 17" is China's first bread wheat variety applied on a large scale, and also the first high-quality, high-yield bread wheat in China with an annual planting area exceeding 10 million mu. It is known as "the pathbreaker of China's high-quality wheat"; "Jimai 19" is a high-quality, high-yield noodle wheat variety bred by Zhao Zhendong according to Chinese people's dietary habits; "Jimai 20" solved the problem of simultaneously improving protein and starch quality, and is a dual-purpose bread and noodle wheat variety.
According to statistics, since 2000, the "Jimai" series varieties have been promoted over a cumulative area of more than 400 million mu, with an average annual promotion area of more than 30 million mu, a national market share of nearly 13%, a market share of 25% in the Huang-Huai wheat region, China's main wheat-producing area, and a market share of more than 50% in Shandong Province.
On the strength of his "many battle achievements," Zhao Zhendong has won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award 4 times, and in 2013 was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The team he led was rated an outstanding innovation team for the Shennong China Agricultural Science and Technology Award in 2008, and was rated an outstanding innovation team of Shandong Province in 2009, and was awarded a collective first-class merit.
"The highest mountain is always the next one"
White shirt, gray trousers, gray cloth shoes, paired with dark skin and a face full of wrinkles... In the eyes of Kong Degui, former head of the former Zaozhuang City Seed Management Station, Zhao Zhendong is no different from a farmer.
"Anyone who knows Teacher Zhao knows that he is a 'three-water expert' - dew all over in the morning, sweat all over at noon, and mud and water all over on rainy days. Not only does he dress much like a farmer, but when he gets to the fields, he sits down on the ground wherever he is tired, and everything he says is language that old farmers can understand, with no sense of distance at all," Kong Degui said.
??? Perhaps precisely because of this, Zhao Zhendong knows best how heavy the Chinese people's rice bowl is. "The country needs grain, farmers need to earn money, and consumers need health. Our country has many people and little land, and people are increasing while land is decreasing. When wheat quality goes up, yield must also go up with it," Zhao Zhendong said.
Fan Qingqi, a member of the breeding team, told the reporter that after the birth of the "Jinan" and "Jimai" series, they changed the history of China's bread wheat depending on imports, solved the food problem for more than 100 million people, and added more than 40 billion jin of wheat and more than 40 billion yuan in economic benefits.
For Zhao Zhendong's team, this brilliant achievement is absolutely not the end point. In 2014, they launched the "Wheat Yield Increase Science and Technology Support Plan," with the goal of surpassing "Jimai 22" at a yield of 1600 jin per mu and breeding a new variety with a yield of 1640 jin per mu.