Potato expert leads the folks of Handan onto the road to prosperity

A plain, honest farmer, after more than twenty years of growing potatoes, though he suffered three painful failures and lessons, remained unwavering in his devotion, going out many times to study and investigate, and later, with the help of experts from the municipal Academy of Agricultural Sciences' "science and technology package" team, combined with local natural conditions, worked out a set of practical cultivation techniques on his own. After growing rich, he did not forget to lead his fellow villagers to wealth as well, and was affectionately called the "potato expert" by his neighbors. He is Zhao Zhi, a villager of Xinan Zhuang Village, Daodongbao Township, Cheng'an County.

Zhao Zhi was born in 1963 in Daodongbao Township, Cheng'an County. This is an important cotton base; in the 1960s, Mao Zedong and other state leaders came here to inspect and guide agricultural work, which gave him confidence for later devoting himself to agriculture and taking root in the countryside. When he graduated from high school in 1979, in that year's fiercely competitive college entrance examination, he fell short by only a few points. Yet he did not, like others, give in to pessimism and despair. He believed the countryside also offered a vast world, and that farming could likewise be a great calling. Relying on his high school education, he actively threw himself into the upsurge of agricultural construction.

Zhao Zhi first spent several years growing cotton and accumulated some planting experience. Since mung beans, peanuts and the like were often intercropped in cotton fields, he considered whether he could intercrop other crops with high yields and large returns. He reasoned at the time that cotton's growth cycle is relatively long, and there are large gaps between cotton plants and between rows, so why not make full use of them, and he tried planting potatoes. So in 1989, he introduced some potato foundation seed from Shandong, and after trial cultivation and planting, the potatoes all rotted in the ground, a one-time loss of seventy or eighty thousand; in the face of this failure, Zhao Zhi did not lose heart, and the following year, after making inquiries, he learned that there were large numbers of potato growers in the Zhangjiakou area, so he went there to learn cultivation techniques and experience, and bought foundation seed locally, and succeeded. In 1992, he wanted to further expand the potato planting area, and contracted 43 mu of land himself. Under his influence, his neighbors also planted quite a lot of potatoes one after another, but the seed potatoes were not thoroughly virus-free, causing a large reduction in potato yield, and he lost another hundred and several tens of thousands. He felt that his own loss did not matter much; the key was that many people who followed him in planting had lost money. To give his fellow villagers an explanation, he borrowed a hundred and several tens of thousands from relatives and friends, and under the pretext of compensation from the manufacturer, paid the money back to everyone out of his own pocket. Because of this, his prestige in everyone's hearts was further established, and they were all willing to follow him in growing potatoes. Afterwards, he privately contacted the manufacturer in Zhangjiakou and told them about the losses caused to everyone by the reduced potato yield; later, after expert verification, it was a problem with the quality of the potatoes. After investigation and evidence collection by the Zhangjiakou seed potato company, their responsibility was finally confirmed, and the following year they compensated 30,000 jin of seed potatoes... In 2012, he purchased 83 tons of seed potatoes from Shandong in one go, and again because of a problem with the seed potato variety, the harvested potatoes were misshapen and bluish in appearance; although this time the harvest was good, because of the appearance and color problems, the potatoes could not be sold, and large quantities had to be thrown away.

How can this kind of risk be avoided? In 2013, Zhao Zhi sought advice from Li Jijun and Li Junling, experts at the municipal Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The experts first told him that selecting foundation seed at the foundation seed site is very important. For this reason, to ensure the quality of the seed potatoes, he went to the seed potato production areas to make careful selections. From the harvesting, storage, virus elimination, and logistics of the seed potatoes, he followed up in a "one-stop" manner. Under the guidance of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences experts, in later management Zhao Zhi, combining his own practical experience, made extensive adjustments and improvements, for example in ridge height, watering amount, sowing depth, and sowing time, further increasing potato yield. He also opened up a piece of land in his own small courtyard as a test plot, planting early-maturing, extremely early-maturing, and ordinary potato varieties to conduct experiments, observing their growth and appearance, how far apart the plants and rows should be, and what diseases appeared, so as to ensure which variety to choose the following year.

Hard work pays off. Under the guidance of the experts from the municipal Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhao Zhi, through practice, worked out a complete set of cultivation techniques. Under his guidance, the potatoes grown by the villagers, compared with the same planting methods elsewhere, increased yield by 500 jin per mu, and he was also responsible for helping the farmers find markets. Faced with so much persistence, Zhao Zhi half-jokingly said that his experience in growing potatoes and Lao She's experience in growing flowers achieve the same result by different means. He said, "Growing potatoes also has laughter and tears, flowers and fruit, fragrance and color; continuing to work also increases the joy; this is the joy of growing flowers, and also the joy of a farmer who grows potatoes." Finally, he stressed that he would persist in leading everyone to wealth together and toward a moderately prosperous life.