A joint survey was conducted from Sept 4 to 7 by the Hubei Agricultural Technology Extension Station and Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU) to promote the development of the high-quality rice industrial chain.

An expert group with members from the two organizations visited Jingzhou, Yichang, Jingmen, and Tianmen in Hubei province.

Their first stop was the "Regenerative Rice+" demonstration base and Chunlu Regenerating Rice Industrial Park at the Honghu Chunlu Crop Planting Professional Cooperative. Zeng Bin, who is in charge of the cooperative, introduced its development history and processing and sales of regenerative rice under the technical support of the HZAU and other institutions.

The expert group provided targeted suggestions on variety selection, controlled-release fertilizer application, lodging resistance, and pest control in regenerative rice production.

They also visited several demonstration bases, including the Daohua Moxiang black rice base in Tianmen and the rice-watermelon interplanting base in Duodao district, where they praised the innovation and economic efficiency of these models.

The experts also examined perennial rice trials at Hubei Yungu Agricultural Development Co Ltd in Mashan town. Additionally, they toured advanced rice processing workshops, noting the positive impact of the "Jianghan Rice" brand on local development.

The experts examine the perennial rice trials in Mashan town.[Photo/news.hzau.edu.cn]

The expert group held a joint survey meeting on Sept 7. The team leaders and technical experts discussed project execution and shared their insights on the survey.

Huang Jianliang, a professor at HZAU, emphasized the need to focus on collaborative promotion mechanism innovation, grain production capacity enhancement, high-quality rice industry chain development, "Jianghan Rice" brand building, and increasing farmers' incomes.

Cao Peng, a technician from the Hubei Agricultural Technology Extension Station, stressed the importance of consensus building, efficient collaboration, clear pathways, and productive outcomes, highlighting the use of mature technologies to address industry issues and enhance farmer training.

Wan Xun, director of the extension station, emphasized viewing the rice industry from a full industrial chain perspective, refining technical models, better serving stakeholders, and establishing dynamic management and exit mechanisms.

Luo Beibei, an official at the extension station, highlighted the need to innovate, detail, and implement new business models, set reasonable goals, and summarize innovative collaborative promotion mechanisms.

Ke Fengying, another official at the station, called for refining representative major technical models and collaborative promotion mechanisms, identifying the reasons behind the low market share of local varieties, and leveraging the "Jianghan Rice" brand to boost the development of Hubei's rice industry.