Agricultural technology expert Huang Bin's experience in agricultural technology extension
??? Farmers and herders do not know that he is a senior agronomist, nor do they know that he is the station chief of the banner agricultural technology extension station. In the eyes of farmers and herders, he is simply a big farmer who "knows everything."
His name is Huang Bin. In 1983, after graduating from Inner Mongolia Ordos Agriculture and Animal Husbandry School, he chose Otog Banner, the most remote area in Ordos, and worked there for 30 years. When he first arrived at the Otog Banner agricultural technology extension station, there were few buses to the rural and pastoral areas, so he hitched rides on farmers' and herders' ox carts. From the banner seat to the rural and pastoral areas, a single trip took 40 days, and he ate and stayed entirely in the homes of local residents. Later, his work unit allocated him a red "Xingfu 125" motorcycle, and from then on a streak of red was added to the vast grassland. Once, when Huang Bin went to the countryside to investigate a corn disaster, after hearing disaster victim Guo Sanzhu's account of his planting experience, he very earnestly began analyzing the mistakes in production. But Guo Sanzhu did not take his words to heart at all; merely because Huang Bin was the disaster assessor, he mumbled a few perfunctory replies on the surface. Huang Bin saw Guo Sanzhu's doubts and made an agreement with him: "Next spring, I will come to give you guidance."
The following spring, Huang Bin contacted Guo Sanzhu by phone as agreed, but Guo Sanzhu and his wife still thought it impossible that Huang Bin would come all that way to talk with him about farming. Yet they never expected that Huang Bin would ride his motorcycle more than 100 kilometers and show up at their doorstep covered in dust. This left them both surprised and moved, and they gained a bit more trust from the bottom of their hearts.
That autumn, two scenes appeared in Guo Sanzhu's cornfield: half was lush and green, and half was withered, yellow, and stunted. The lush green corn yielded more than 1000 jin per mu, while the withered, yellow, and stunted corn yielded less than 500 jin per mu. It turned out that when planting, Guo Sanzhu used Huang Bin's method on one part and still used traditional farming methods on the other part. The purpose of doing so was to guard against mishaps and avoid a total crop failure that year. As a result, Huang Bin's planting method gave them double the harvest.
"Do it for the farmers to see, lead the farmers to do it" is the principle of Huang Bin's actions. Over the years, Huang Bin has offered suggestions and strategies for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry throughout the banner, and was the first to propose the crop farming development idea of "using cultivation for feed," vigorously developing high-quality forage crops. He has cumulatively introduced and promoted more than 80 new crop and vegetable varieties, introduced and promoted more than 20 new high-efficiency cultivation technologies, with a cumulative promoted area of 3 million mu-times, built more than 4000 biogas digesters, benefiting more than 10,000 farmers and herders, giving village appearances a completely new look and promoting the construction of a new socialist countryside. He has gone to the grassroots to conduct technical training lectures more than 1000 times, trained more than 150,000 farmer and herder person-times, distributed more than 200,000 copies of various materials, and solved one production technology problem after another for farmers. Many farmers and herders like to spend time with him, and whenever they have difficulties they are willing to call him to communicate, and he always answers these questions carefully and patiently until the farmers and herders understand and are satisfied.
For example, with greenhouse cultivation, at the beginning many herders did not accept it, but after he analyzed and explained it from the perspectives of technology and development, and also led the herders on site visits to greenhouses and personally taught them step by step how to cultivate, his success was seen by the farmers and herders, and greenhouses were built in pastoral areas for the first time. Now some herders have already benefited, changing the nomadic people's long-standing situation of being unable to eat fresh vegetables in winter. For many years, the diet of herders had always been mainly beef and mutton. Now, under Huang Bin's guidance and help, vegetable greenhouses have been built beside the yurts, planted with spinach, tomatoes, and so on, and they can eat reassuring vegetables they grow themselves.
Relying on carriers such as agricultural science and technology projects and science popularization demonstration bases, Huang Bin proactively connects with farmers' professional associations, large-scale growers, and science and technology demonstration households in science and technology, providing services in production technology, experimental promotion, market information and business management, as well as assistance with living needs. "What farmers and herders need is to talk less and do more; the demonstration and driving effect gets twice the result with half the effort, and this is also the topic I will focus on next." Huang Bin said.