Li Denghai has been engaged in agricultural scientific research since 1970. Over the past 40 years, he and his team have successively bred more than 40 maize inbred lines with high combining ability, bred 100 compact maize hybrids, and set and refreshed the high-yield record of summer maize in China for seven consecutive times and the high-yield record of summer maize in the world for two times. Among the selected maize varieties, 50 varieties have passed the national and provincial examination and approval, and 29 varieties have obtained the national new plant variety right. Shandong Denghai Seed Industry Co., Ltd., which he founded, has set up more than 800 demonstration sites throughout the country. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, during the Eighth Five-Year Plan and the Ninth Five-Year Plan, the maize hybrids "Ye Dan" and "Denghai" bred in Li Denghai have been popularized nationwide for a total of 880 million mu, with the largest annual planting area accounting for more than 1/3 of the whole country.
In order to realize his youth dream, he sweated in the corn field for forty years.
Li Denghai's inexhaustible motive force for studying corn stems from two things. One thing is that when he was young, his life was very difficult because of the poor land, poor production conditions and low grain output in the village. Especially during the three years of natural disasters, he ate bark, leaves, wild vegetables, aquatic plants, corncob, sweet potato vines and so on, and the taste of hunger left a deep imprint on his heart. Another thing is: 1972, he got a report from Mr. Founder, a wheat breeding expert of Yantai Agricultural Institute, on the agricultural investigation of China agricultural experts in the United States in 1970, which introduced the pioneer seed company of hybrid corn industry founded by American farmer Wallace, and mentioned that the highest corn yield in the United States reached1250kg. At that time, China's corn output was only 100 per mu? 65,438+050 kg, the sharp contrast of corn production between the two countries shocked Li Denghai. That is, from then on, it has become Li Denghai's lifelong goal and ideal pursuit to create a high-yield road for corn in China and catch up with the advanced level in the world.
During the eight years from 1972 to 1979, they have bred more than 100 excellent domestic hybrids and planted more than 140 high-yield plots of summer corn, with an area exceeding 1. 1 mu, and the yield per mu continuously exceeded 600kg.
Before 1979, the research on high yield of maize was all flat cross maize varieties. After years of practice, Li Denghai gradually realized that it was difficult to obtain high yield after breaking 650kg, and decided not to use it. 1979, a high-yield field sown in summer, 1978, a compact hybrid bred in winter 107× huangzao No.4, namely Yedan No.2, broke through 700 kg in one fell swoop and reached 776.9 kg through expert acceptance. This scientific research has caused a sensation throughout the country. Since then, Li Denghai has embarked on a new road to tackle the problem of high yield of maize by using compact maize hybrids.
For Li Denghai, 1989 and 2005 are extraordinary two years.
1989 passed the acceptance of experts from the National Corn Expert Advisory Group of the Ministry of Agriculture. Ye Dan 13 is a new high-yield maize variety with compact, medium-short, high lodging resistance and high grain weight, which has set a world high-yield record of per mu 1096.29 kg. In 2005, a new compact super corn variety "Denghai Chaoshi 1" was bred by using germplasm resources, with an yield of 1 402.86 kg per mu, which once again set a new record for high yield of summer corn in the world.
For breeders, there is only one precious opportunity to tackle key problems with high yield and catch up with the advanced world level once a year. To this end, Li Denghai has been working hard for 40 years. For 40 years, he has hardly had a holiday, and he is racing against time every day. From 1977, it breeds in Shandong every summer and Hainan every winter. So far, he has spent 32 winters and 32 Spring Festival in Hainan. Every year on New Year's Eve, lead the breeders who are far away from home, face the north and sing "365 Li Road" to bless their relatives in their hometown.
Because of long-term field research, high temperature and high humidity, and long-term standing pollination, he experienced five times in hemorrhoids surgery. In Hainan breeding base, in order to protect corn breeding materials, when corn is about to be harvested, they work in the field during the day and care in the field at night, and mosquitoes put sacks on their heads and feet; In order to prevent cattle from eating, they cut wood and woven fences to make fences. They are often bitten by ants and cut their clothes and skin by thorns.
Corn became Li Denghai's favorite. For decades, he has developed the habit of going to the corn field almost every day. When I come back from the door, I will look at the cornfield first. Sometimes when you come back at night, you have to look at the cornfield with a flashlight first. Li Denghai said that high agricultural yield is promising and my dream.
In order to realize the dream of youth, Li Denghai and his team members have been tackling the problem of high-yield maize continuously for 40 years, which has promoted the improvement of the research level of high-yield cultivation of hybrid maize in China, realized the historic transformation of hybrid maize breeding in China from flat variety to compact high-yield variety breeding, and successfully opened up the road of high-yield maize in China.
In order to explore the way out of corn seed industry, he innovated independently and industrialized.
In order to increase corn production, industrialization is necessary. The success of tackling key problems of high-yield corn is only the beginning of the whole road of high-yield corn. With high-yield varieties, how can these varieties be transformed into real output and farmers' real income as soon as possible? How can we make corn high-yield research develop continuously for a long time? Engaged in agricultural scientific research for many years, Li Denghai found a phenomenon: those engaged in scientific research do not engage in promotion, those engaged in promotion do not engage in production, those engaged in production do not engage in sales, and those engaged in sales do not care about scientific research. This system has seriously affected the research and development, transformation and popularization of scientific research results.
1985 In March, the Central Committee made the Decision on the Reform of Science and Technology System, which pointed out the direction for Li Denghai. He realized that high yield of corn is a technological achievement, and industrialized development is the way out. In the same year, he raised 20,000 yuan by himself and established the first industrialized private experimental station in China, namely Yexian Houdeng Agricultural Experimental Station. In this way, the "science and technology self-employed" composed of several farmers stood at the forefront of the market historically, became the main body of innovation, entrepreneurship and competition, and stepped out of the first step of seed industrialization. 1998, Shandong Denghai Seed Industry Group Company was formally established.
The reform and opening up and the reform of seed industry system provide an opportunity for Denghai Seed Company to connect with the world, go abroad and introduce new technologies. During the period of 1996, American Pioneer Company took Denghai Seed Company as the cooperative partner to enter the China market. After six years of negotiations, from June 5438 to February 2002, Denghai Seed Company and the world seed giant Pioneer Seed Company jointly established Shandong Denghai Pioneer Seed Co., Ltd.
In the joint venture negotiations with American Pioneer Company, Li Denghai always insisted that the enterprise must be controlled by the Chinese side. After six years of negotiations, Denghai Seed Company finally held 5 1% of the shares. This is the first time that American Pioneer Seed Company has been controlled by others. In 2002, when Li Denghai visited American Pioneer Company, the other party received him with the standard of raising a five-star red flag. Li Denghai said: "This is the recognition of his corn research achievements for more than 30 years, and it is also the respect of a world corn power for China seed industry."
On April 18, 2005, Denghai Seed Industry Co., Ltd. was successfully listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and an enterprise founded by several farmers entered the domestic capital market. At present, the market value of Denghai Seed Industry has reached 4.7 billion yuan, with fixed assets of 390 million yuan, net assets of 970 million yuan and nearly 1,000 employees. The promotion and sales network spread all over 28 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China, and it was rated as the first batch of agricultural innovative enterprises and the only national innovative enterprise in seed industry.
After 24 years of development, Denghai Seed Company has successfully explored an industrialization road of maize breeding, production, processing and popularization. With excellent and high-yield corn varieties, the core competitive advantage of enterprises has been fundamentally established; With the integrated management mode of "education, reproduction, promotion and marketing", enterprises will transform this core competitive advantage into market share, accelerate the popularization of improved varieties, and form realistic grain production capacity; Relying on strong industrial strength, it also "feeds back" seed research and supports independent research and development with strong funds, realizing a virtuous circle of scientific research, management and promotion, and accelerating the research and development and transformation of scientific research results.
No matter at what stage the enterprise develops, Li Denghai always adheres to one goal: to develop the national seed industry in China, to ensure national food security and to benefit farmers. For decades, they have sent experimental and demonstration seeds to hundreds of scientific research units nationwide for free, and provided more than 30 inbred lines such as "478" selected by themselves to many domestic breeding experts. They have arranged more than 300 professionals and set up more than 800 demonstration sites all over the country to provide full demonstration services such as lectures, cultivation, management, observation and seed ordering. It has invested 200 million yuan to establish maize seed production bases, production bases and processing centers in Ningxia, Xinjiang, Gansu and Inner Mongolia, and established more than 654.38+marketing outlets in 25 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, directly creating social benefits for the country10 billion yuan.
In order to catch up with the advanced level in the world, he always plans his own life path.
In the eyes of many people, Li Denghai is a successful man. In fact, the secret of his success is nothing more than a realistic attitude and unremitting efforts. As a farmer-born scientific and technological worker, he always retains the indomitable spirit of China farmers, the spirit of challenging in the face of difficulties, and the spirit of persistent pursuit of goals. From flat corn to compact corn, and then to compact super corn, Li Denghai is never satisfied in the field of corn breeding, and is still making unremitting efforts to create a high-yield road for corn in China and catch up with the advanced level in the world.
Li Denghai said that in agricultural scientific research, empty talk is not enough. In corn research, we have paid more hardships and paid more hardships to get today's scientific research results.
In others' eyes, Li Denghai is the chairman of a listed company and a "billionaire". In fact, he is just a "migrant worker" of the company and a "long-term worker" who works in the corn field. He believes that human life is limited, but innovation is infinite. It is Li Denghai's lifelong pursuit to continue to create the road of high-yield corn in China, catch up with the advanced level in the world, select more and better compact high-yield corn varieties, continuously develop and strengthen the core competitiveness of seed enterprises, and revitalize the national seed industry in China. It is right to listen to the Party, engage in scientific research and make more contributions to the country and the people throughout one's life.
In May, 2007, when the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League held the activity of "I and my motherland forge ahead", Li Denghai left a sentence: "In the first half of my life, the high-yield varieties I selected increased the national grain production by 1 000 billion kg; I will use super corn in the second half of my life, and strive to increase the national grain production by 1000 billion kilograms, and make due contributions to ensuring national food security and increasing farmers' income.