Jixian apples improve in quality and increase income, expert Zhu Feng has clever tricks
In Jixian, when people mention Zhu Feng, head of the technical station at the county fruit industry service center, no apple grower is unfamiliar with him, and they all give him a thumbs-up and praise him: "Jixian apples owe so much to Station Head Zhu, he is our expert."
Over 30 years since starting work, Zhu Feng has always been on the front lines of apple production. He has done a great deal of work in expanding Jixian's apple acreage, improving quality, and promoting and popularizing new technologies, making outstanding achievements in strengthening the development of the specialty apple industry and increasing fruit growers' income.
In fact, Zhu Feng did not come from a formal academic background; it was through diligent study that he gradually mastered orchard management techniques.
Anyone who knows Zhu Feng knows that his greatest trait is his love of learning and deep study. In the 1990s, Professor Ma Enzheng of Shanxi Agricultural University often came to Jixian to guide techniques and hold training classes. Zhu Feng stayed by his side every day, listening carefully to every lecture Professor Ma gave, and whenever he encountered something he did not understand, he would ask right away. During the many years Professor Ma came to Jixian to guide, Zhu Feng learned a great deal of practical experience that could not be learned from textbooks. Later, whenever fruit industry experts came to Jixian to teach techniques, Zhu Feng was always there, and as a result he received much true instruction.
While learning from experts and scholars, Zhu Feng also participated many times in technical training classes organized at the provincial, municipal, and county levels. His modest and diligent attitude toward learning turned him step by step from a layman in fruit industry management into an expert deeply trusted by fruit growers.
Zhu Feng is a thoughtful person, and also an ambitious one. In 1989, he accompanied the leaders and colleagues of the fruit industry service center to Beijing to participate in an evaluation, bringing Jixian apples with them. Among several hundred samples from across the country, he recognized "No. 11" as Jixian apples at a glance, astonishing his colleagues. After the evaluation ended, he earnestly asked the head of the expert group to give him a copy of Jixian's inspection and evaluation results. When his colleagues asked what he wanted it for, he said he wanted to drive Jixian's fruit growers to produce apples that could win a national gold award.
In 1992, Zhu Feng took Red Star apples produced under his guidance to the first National Agricultural Exposition. In the evaluation, experts gave five national firsts: "uniformity, high shoulder, five-lobed prominence, deep and even red coloration, and high firmness." The only shortcoming was high starch content and low sugar content.
Just as the experts were discussing whether to award Jixian apples the "gold award," the quick-witted Zhu Feng boldly asked one of the judges, national fruit expert Professor Wang Jingyan: "When are Red Star apples at their most delicious?"
Professor Wang Jingyan said: "15 days after picking." Zhu Feng said: "Professor Wang, only 5 days have passed from picking to inspection and evaluation for our apples. The starch content is high, and after 10 days it converts into sugar, so won't the sugar content increase?" After hearing this, Professor Wang gave Zhu Feng a thumbs-up and said: "Xiao Zhu, the national gold award should indeed be awarded to your Jixian." It was at this first National Agricultural Expo that Jixian Red Star apples won the only gold award in the apple category, something the people of Jixian are still proud of today. Zhu Feng's contribution to winning this gold award can truly not be overlooked.
In the early 1990s, Jixian carried out a paper solicitation activity for "invigorating the county through science and technology." Based on Jixian's uniquely favorable natural environment and his experience in national evaluations, Zhu Feng wrote an article titled "Give Play to Jixian's Advantages, Develop High-Grade Apples," using plain and easy-to-understand language to explain the advantages and development prospects of Jixian's apple industry. The article won "first prize" among 400 papers. From then on, Jixian's apple planting area took four big steps in five years, developing from 40,000 mu to 200,000 mu.
Having served as head of the technical station for more than 20 years, Zhu Feng has formed an inseparable bond with apples. From seedling cultivation and transport to planning, marking points, digging pits, backfilling, planting, trunk setting, and pruning, and then to pest and disease control and soil, fertilizer, and water management, wherever a project was underway, his footprints were there. The projects he oversaw were the county's "model projects" year after year.
As the person in charge of the technical station, Zhu Feng took it as his duty to promote and apply new technologies for apple orchard management. He successively participated in the popularization of new technologies such as orchard grass growing, reflective film laying, fruit bagging, biological control, and fruit tree pruning, and took part in compiling technical guidance materials such as the "Eight Reforms and Ten Supporting Measures Operating Technical Regulations" and "Organic Apple Production Technology," doing his part to increase production and income for thousands upon thousands of fruit growers.
In the summer of 2012, Dongcheng Township in Jixian suffered a hailstorm disaster unmatched in 60 years. When many fruit growers did not know what to do, Zhu Feng arrived in time, passed on relevant knowledge to the affected fruit growers, and minimized their losses. The measures he proposed received full recognition from higher-level experts.
In recent years, the Jixian County Party Committee and County Government put forward a strategic decision to improve and upgrade apples. Technicians all threw themselves into the upsurge of promoting "density reduction and thinning" technology, and Zhu Feng traveled throughout all the orchards in the county, earnestly persuading fruit growers to adopt "density reduction and thinning" technology. Through his efforts and those of his colleagues, this technology was widely promoted and used throughout the county, enabling thousands of fruit-growing households to realize their dream of increasing production and income.
In Zhu Feng's heart, apples are his lifelong cause, and he wants to lead the ordinary people of Jixian onto the road to prosperity through his own efforts.