In the spring of 1972, Deng Village, which has always been quiet in Xiyou Town, Laizhou, suddenly became lively. In the streets, there were three people in pairs, and people talked about it in succession: "Hey, have you heard? That kid in Li Denghai wants to test a new variety of corn, with an yield per mu 1500 kg! "
"per mu 1500 kg?" A farmer over half a year old counted his fingers, "impossible, impossible!" " "Shake your head like a peddling drum.
"Li Denghai hasn't slept at noon, talking in his sleep!" Another middle-aged man tried to plug a broken cotton-padded jacket with cotton, shrugged his shoulders and threw a joke.
In fact, Li Denghai is very sober.
1968 graduated from junior high school. The "Cultural Revolution" cut off a rural teenager's dream of going to college and went to his hometown to raise him and then went to the village. This is the plain area along the coast of Laizhou Bay, which has always been a concentrated grain producing area. Due to years of historical habits and man-made reasons, the grain output is very low. After returning to his hometown, Li Denghai was determined to use his knowledge to change the situation of low yield. Since then, he has formed an indissoluble bond with the research on how to farm scientifically. 1972, Li Denghai, who was only 23 years old, served as the captain of the village agricultural team. He proposed a new maize variety test with yield per mu 1500 kg, which caused an uproar in Houdeng village. How can you be a captain when you are young and inexperienced? He was afraid, too. But he firmly believes that the road is made by people and the cause is made by people. As long as you are willing to study hard, you can achieve something.
"The new official takes office with three fires". How did Li Can burn these three fires when he went to sea? He thought, young people should dare to rush, but their heads should be calm and their steps should be steady. Scientific farming can't be all hands and feet, but step by step. After consulting with his young partners, he decided to start with three things: first, learn agricultural science and technology; The second is to carry out soil analysis and reform the farming system; The third is to introduce improved varieties and conduct high-yield experiments. At the beginning of the experiment, the first three feet were difficult to kick. Li Denghai led a group of young people to focus on the management and cultivation of wheat, corn and peanuts. After countless days and nights of hard work in the experimental field, the crops are growing well. In the second year, the output of wheat, corn and peanut in Houdeng increased obviously, and the corn in the high-yield field of Li Denghai Agricultural Science Team broke through the high-yield mark in one fell swoop. Those who squinted at them in the village began to change their views: "A group of young people in Li Denghai are really capable, capable of doing things and promising." After listening to these words, the young man's heart is really sweet, just like eating an popsicle in the dog days.
Strange! "The big one can't beat the small one", and the yield of corn is lower than that of wheat? The potential of maize production in Li Denghai stems from this phenomenon. No, we must work hard to conquer the high yield of corn. We must try to get some good seeds so that the yield per mu of corn will exceed 1500 kg! Young people in the scientific and technological team all agree with Li Denghai. However, they ran round and round and went to eight counties, but they didn't find a corn seed that could hit 1500 kg. However, they got a message: many scientific research departments inside and outside the province are trying to cultivate new maize varieties with yield per mu 1500 kg, but they don't know when Na Yue will produce them. Everyone knows that it is difficult to produce high-yield grain without high-yield seeds. what can I do? Li Denghai found his partner: "How about we take part in the championship of cultivating new corn varieties with an acre yield of 1500 kg?" When everyone heard this, their heads shook like drums selling: "There are so many universities in the country that this hard bone can't be chewed for a while. Can these bumpkins do it? " "Nothing is difficult in the world, but if you put your mind to it, as long as you have this firm belief, you can study hard and drill hard, and maybe you can really do something." Li Denghai wants to have a try.
(2)
Li Denghai once thought about cultivating new maize varieties with yield per mu 1500 kg for a hundred times. Needless to say, this project lacks necessary experimental equipment and even has poor basic knowledge, especially basic theory. However, beef buns didn't fall from the sky. If you want to do something, you won't get good things at your fingertips without hard work.
"I don't have much money, but I'm a little stubborn. Once you see something clearly and are fascinated, you must be fascinated to the end. You will not give up until you find a way out. "
Li Denghai's interest in cultivating new corn varieties has reappeared.
What if there is a lack of basic theory?
Study! Come to him for three years and study hard. Spend several times more time and energy than others, learn from books, insiders and practice, quickly make up for the "congenital deficiency" of basic theory, and lay a good foundation for breaking through the corn 1500 kg mark.
In addition to borrowing a large number of related books, he also purchased and subscribed to more than ten kinds of books, newspapers and periodicals about corn breeding and cultivation, and kept reading every minute. He often puts books and periodicals in his pocket and opens them for a few minutes before and after work and in the fields. Sometimes he is fascinated by learning, walking away, and thinking, and can't hear an acquaintance shouting. It is common to light kerosene lamps at night and study until two o'clock in the morning. After staying up late for a long time, one night he fell asleep with a book in his arms. I knocked over the kerosene lamp that I forgot to put out in my sleep, and the pillow quilt caught fire, which almost caused a fire. Made the old mother complain for several days. My mother is very distressed, because she has been eating books day and night, her body is thin and her eyes are often bloodshot. In order not to worry her mother, Li Denghai put out the kerosene lamp and studied under the covers with a flashlight. In a few years, he studied more than a dozen basic theory books such as genetics and breeding, soil and fertilizer, wrote more than 200,000 words of reading notes and experimental records, and sorted out more than 20 experimental materials on breeding, cultivation and fertilizer, and finally opened the door to the basic theory of agriculture.
If you want to achieve something, it is very important to learn from your teachers. In the process of gnawing at books, Li Denghai also asked all the experts for advice. Often visit the old farmer; Riding a bike to the home of some skilled agricultural captains; Whenever an expert comes to give a lecture locally, he not only tries his best to attend the lecture, but sometimes invites them to teach at home. From 65438 to 0974, Li Denghai finally got the opportunity to go to Laiyang Agricultural College for further study.
(3)
1974 in may, Li Denghai and his partners carried twenty heavy seeds and planted them one by one in the experimental field. Since then, Li Denghai has officially started a key campaign to cultivate new high-yield maize varieties.
These 20 seeds were personally given to Li Denghai by Associate Professor Liu Enxun of Laiyang Agricultural College, and they are the basic materials for separating inbred line âââXL80 from the United States. "This is my preserved imported seeds. When planted last year, it showed strong disease resistance, basic immunity to leaf spot disease and high yield. You go back and try, maybe there is hope. " Li Denghai is really a treasure. I secretly made up my mind to cultivate it with all my efforts, water it with sweat, isolate the ideal inbred line as soon as possible, and assemble a high-yield corn variety!
After planting these 20 "XL80" seeds in the ground, Li Denghai spent more than 120 days from emergence to harvest, watering, fertilizing, intertillage, pest control, pollination, bagging, observation and recording, and squatted in the breeding field almost every day, sometimes too busy to even eat. My wife Zhang Yonghui is Li Denghai's right-hand man in breeding, and she is also busy. Housework can only be undertaken by her old mother. Sometimes the water tank at home is dry, and the old mother has to carry the pot one at a time.
After more than 4,000 combinations and more than 500,000 data records, the ideal inbred line Ye 107 was finally isolated from these 20 "XL80" seeds. And in the continuous separation of "XL80" system, lines with high combining ability and high yield began to appear.
1977, Li Denghai led everyone to build a greenhouse, and carried out delayed sowing and lateral crossing experiments with early-maturing inbred lines. After more than two months' efforts, we have found some doorways to further solve the problems of disjointed sex and long growth period. Who knows that when it rains, it rains overnight. Just one night when the corn is about to mature, a group of mice got into the earth shed and ate all the bagged self-bred hybrid corn grains overnight. Li Denghai was heartbroken when faced with corn kernels chewed by rats.
(4)
Hainan Island with beautiful scenery is a unique natural greenhouse in China, and three counties (cities) in the south, namely Yaxian County, Lingxian County and Ledong County, are well-known winter breeding bases in China. Generally speaking, a crop can only reproduce once a year in one place. If it can be bred once a year in Hainan, not only can a new variety play a role in production as soon as possible, but also the work efficiency can be doubled for scientific research, that is, the life span of breeders can be relatively prolonged.
1in the autumn of 978, the last stage of breeding in Li Denghai was left. Seeing that a high-yield thoroughbred is about to be born, can you not worry? In order to speed up the breeding and make the experiment successful as soon as possible, he decided to go to Hainan Island for breeding.
Hainan has a subtropical climate with high temperature and high humidity. Li Denghai and his friends live in a ravine as high as 30 degrees, which is as difficult as being locked in a steamer. The food I eat is dried radish brought from my hometown; Living in a grass shed with no retaining wall on all sides, surrounded by mosquitoes and poisonous snakes, I can only sleep for three or four hours a day, and I have to observe and record hundreds of data. Insect control, weeding and field management are busier and more bitter than the "three summers" in my hometown. When harvesting, gay men only wear a pair of briefs. In order to kill corn once, they have to jump into the pond in the ravine and take a bath before drying. The firecrackers lit by the Li people told them that the Spring Festival had arrived. But in order to reproduce, they suppressed their homesickness. In particular, I am glad to see that the hybrid maize seedlings of "Ye 107" and "Huangzao No.4" grow stronger and stronger. Finally, I received the seeds of "Ye 107 * Huangzao No.4" (namely "Yedan No.2"), weighing seven kilograms and two ounces. In the second year, it was planted on the land of Houdeng, and it broke through the 1500 kg mark for the first time!
(5)
Li Denghai did it!
Li Denghai's first reproductive goal has been achieved!
After 17 years' efforts, Li Denghai has successively cultivated high-yield maize varieties such as Yedan No.2, Yedan No.8 and Yedan No.6 in Hainan Island and hometown, among which the yield per mu of compact maize hybrid Yedan No.2 is 903.6 kg, which is the highest in China. At present, this variety has been extended to 26 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China, with a cumulative increase of 4.24 billion kilograms of grain. 1986, a new summer maize combination "8112 * 80104" bred in Li Denghai set a new record for high yield of summer maize in China with an excellent yield of 962.6438+0 kg. On June 4th/kloc-0, 1988, a new maize combination "340*479" with a density of 5,394 plants was directly broadcast on the plot with a yield of 380 kg per mu. In the production process, despite the drought in the early stage, the severe wind disaster in the middle stage and the low temperature in the late stage of filling, he still won the highest yield of summer corn in China with the yield per mu 1000 kg. Experts identified the new summer maize combination as a big spike variety with high quality, disease resistance, lodging resistance and suitable for close planting, which is of great significance for making full use of land and improving multiple cropping index, and provides extremely valuable experience for high-yield cultivation of summer maize in China.