"Grape God of Wealth" Chang Yongyi Drives Gansu Grapes to the National Stage
Chang Yongyi is a professor at Gansu Agricultural University, vice president of the Grape and Wine Branch of the Chinese Society for Horticultural Science, and an executive director of the Grape Branch of the Chinese Association of Agricultural Science Societies. He has presided over and completed 8 provincial and ministerial-level grape research and development projects. He introduced and selected 12 excellent new grape varieties suitable for cultivation in different regions of northwest China, with a cumulative promotion area of 70,000 mu and cumulative grape income of nearly 1 billion yuan. He is a recipient of the "Second Gansu Provincial Moral Model" award. For 30 years, he has tirelessly shuttled between universities and villages, moving his laboratory to the fields and writing his papers on the land. Through his professional research and technology promotion, he has driven the great development of Gansu's grape industry, making Gansu grapes renowned nationwide and bringing them to the national stage. Chief reporter Yu Yongzhao, text/photo
The "Grape God of Wealth" Plants a "Money Tree"
As early as 1976, Chang Yongyi threw himself into the vineyards. He and his colleagues successively introduced more than 100 new grape varieties from home and abroad for variety comparison trials and adaptability research, and selected 12 excellent new varieties suitable for cultivation under different conditions in the Hexi region. He was the first to carry out the promotion and application of varieties such as "Thompson Seedless" in Dunhuang and provide technical guidance for new varieties, making outstanding contributions to promoting the development of the local grape industry.
Since 2000, with the strong support of the Dunhuang Municipal Government, under the leadership of Chang Yongyi, Dunhuang City implemented the "Ten-Thousand-Mu Red Globe Grape Industrialization Base Construction" and "Introduction and Demonstration of New Grape Varieties" projects, further promoting the great development of the local grape industry. Among them, Qinjiawan Village in Qili Town, Dunhuang City, which only began planting grapes in 2000, under Chang Yongyi's technical guidance, took 5 years to plant all 1,140 mu of the village's land with the high-quality, storage-and-transport-resistant new American grape variety "Red Globe."
The "Reverse Pipa" of Grape Production
Chang Yongyi, who is devoted to leading farmers to prosperity through agricultural science and technology, was not satisfied with the achievements made in Dunhuang City. He set his sights on the high-altitude, cold and arid mountainous areas with poorer natural conditions and the largest impoverished population.
Through "reverse thinking," Chang Yongyi developed and utilized the cold climate of high-altitude areas as a "cold resource." Through more than ten years of research and technological innovation, in the "forbidden zone" of high-altitude grape cultivation, he overcame a series of technical difficulties. He successively solved the technical problems of high-survival-rate planting of grapes in high-cold and cold regions, stress-environment cultivation techniques, early-fruiting, high-quality, high-efficiency, water-saving and fertilizer-saving cultivation techniques, and regulation techniques for delaying the harvest period of solar greenhouse grapes to the New Year's Day and Spring Festival; he established the technical standards for facility-delayed grapes in the northwest plateau region of one-year seedling planting, two-year high yield, and reaching full fruit-bearing stage in 3 years. More than 50,000 mu of facility grapes have been promoted and planted in the northwest region, with an annual output value of more than 1 billion yuan. The facility grape industry has enabled more than 10,000 farmers and herdsmen in impoverished areas to escape poverty in one step.
An Agronomy Expert's "Love for Farming"
In Chang Yongyi, the outstanding qualities of an agricultural science and technology expert are concentrated: taking it as his duty to enrich the people, going deep into the grassroots, keeping his promises, and being willing to make sacrifices. In the eyes of ordinary people, Professor Chang's technology is reliable, and relying on grapes to become wealthy is reliable; in the eyes of grassroots officials and technical personnel, he is not only an important leader in the development of Gansu's grape industry, but his outstanding qualities of enthusiastically serving "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" and his honesty and pragmatism have set an example for the broad ranks of science and technology workers.
From the late 1970s, when he rode donkey carts or hand tractors, going from village to village to serve "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers," to today's remarkable achievements, he has been willing to go to the grassroots, unafraid of hardship, and persistent. For decades, the green vineyards have been the place he cares about, and on his shoulders rests a heavy sense of responsibility and mission. Through his long-term dealings with farmers, an indelible "love for farming" has been deeply integrated into Chang Yongyi's life.