On the road of kiwifruit science and technology poverty alleviation, Zhong Caihong willingly serves as a lamp-lighter

In the beautiful Wuhan Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, there is a kiwifruit orchard. Every October, clusters of kiwifruit hang from the branches, always drawing crowds of visitors.

On June 30, Zhong Caihong, a researcher at the Wuhan Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who has worked here for many years and serves as the director of the main field of the National Kiwifruit Germplasm Repository, was awarded the title of "2016 Outstanding Party Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences."

This year marks Zhong Caihong's 24th year of connection with kiwifruit research. For many years she has traveled to the fields of impoverished mountainous areas, and with the tenacity and perseverance of a Hunan native, she has earned an impressive report card: over the past decade, the cumulative promoted planting area of various new kiwifruit varieties from Wuhan Botanical Garden has reached 210,000 mu, with supporting high-efficiency production technology radiating to 680,000 mu, and cumulative output value reaching over 10 billion yuan.

Three generations "relay" to cultivate new varieties

In this, the world's largest kiwifruit germplasm repository, new varieties famous at home and abroad such as "Jinyan," "Donghong," and "Jintao" were born; this is also the technological source of the domestic kiwifruit industry, from which a large number of new varieties and new technologies flow out.

In 1992, Zhong Caihong graduated from Hunan Agricultural University and entered the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, where she worked on kiwifruit research. Zhong Caihong felt this was only natural, because what she studied in university was fruit tree science. In 2006, at the age of 38, Zhong Caihong, at the strong invitation of the Wuhan Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, studied under researcher Huang Hongwen, chairman of the Kiwifruit Working Group of the International Society for Horticultural Science and then director of the National Kiwifruit Germplasm Repository, taking charge of kiwifruit breeding and cultivation research as well as the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

"At that time I had worked at the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences for 14 years, and I had my own responsibilities there. I did hesitate about leaving. But the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the 'holy temple' in the hearts of grassroots researchers, and for kiwifruit research and promotion, the platform is bigger," Zhong Caihong said.

"Kiwifruit is a perennial vine, and breeding a new variety takes at least ten years or more, so the domestic breeding research institutions that can persist are few and far between." Zhong Caihong gave an example: the star variety "Jinyan" is the first variety bred through independent research and development via interspecific hybridization, with large fruit size, yellow flesh, good taste, and excellent storability, a long shelf life, and edible whether soft or firm, breaking through the limitation of traditional varieties that can only be eaten when the fruit is soft. But this variety took a full 20-plus years from research to national variety approval.

"This is the painstaking effort and achievement of three generations of researchers. Fruit tree breeding is a relay race that requires long-term persistence," Zhong Caihong said with emotion. Now she and her team are also working on a new batch of innovative kiwifruit germplasm, "serving as a stepping stone for the next generation to produce excellent varieties."

Igniting the spark in Pujiang

Pujiang County in Sichuan is recognized worldwide as the best germplasm area for kiwifruit. In 2010, "Pujiang kiwifruit" officially obtained national geographical indication protection product certification. At present, Pujiang's kiwifruit planting area is nearly 100,000 mu, making it the world's largest production base for high-quality yellow-fleshed kiwifruit.

But who would have thought that ten years ago Pujiang had only a few hundred mu of scattered kiwifruit plantings, and moreover, due to a scam encountered in investment promotion, it was left with a mess of kiwifruit industrialization. Assigned to the task in a crisis, Zhong Caihong simply packed her bags and rushed to Pujiang without delay. But the situation before her was far more complex than imagined: the introduced varieties were protected by New Zealand patents and could not be planted at all without authorization; the local kiwifruit industry lacked overall effective planning, had no technical standards or professional talent, and everything had to start from zero.

Facing difficulties, Zhong Caihong did not shrink back. With the strong support of the Wuhan Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhong Caihong decided to introduce "Jinyan" for demonstration planting. Under Zhong Caihong's wholehearted dedication and careful care, the demonstration field reached a yield of 800 jin per mu in the initial fruiting period in the second year, and in the fourth year, during the full fruiting period, it could stably yield about 4,000 jin per mu, with profit per mu reaching as high as 40,000 yuan.

The spark quickly became a prairie fire. As of 2016, the national planting area of the kiwifruit "Jinyan" reached 170,000 mu.

Truly making farmers rich

The tremendous success in Pujiang let more impoverished mountainous areas know the charm of science and technology poverty alleviation. In the following years, Zhong Caihong and her team successively established kiwifruit demonstration bases in impoverished counties in Sichuan, Guizhou, Anhui, Henan, Hunan, Hubei and other places, becoming the "kiwifruit" that helped local farmers escape poverty and become wealthy.

There is such a detail: in 2010, when Zhong Caihong went to Pujiang to give a class, even the aisles were packed with farmers who came to listen. Most of these fruit growers who came of their own accord were dressed in suits and drove Audi cars. Zhong Caihong gave an example: at that time a fruit grower in Pujiang planted 20 mu of "Jinyan," with an orchard-gate price of 12 yuan per jin, and earned 500,000 yuan in a single year, realizing that very year the "dream of building a new house, buying a new car, and getting a wife."

Some people describe Zhong Caihong as a "lamp-lighter" on the road of kiwifruit science and technology poverty alleviation, burning herself to illuminate the farmers' path to prosperity.