The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs recently awarded 500 people for their contribution to agricultural technology promotion.

Zhang Fuxian, researcher at the Quzhou Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Science, and Wu Rongmei, senior agronomist at the Kaihua Tea Research Institute, won the honor.

Zhang Fuxian carries out field research. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

Zhang has been engaged in the breeding of new crop varieties and the promotion of supporting technologies for improved varieties and methods for more than 30 years.

More than 30 technologies, including those related to the entire sweet potato industrial chain and more than 50 improved varieties, were promoted by Zhang. The application area reached 3.3 million mu (220,000 hectares), generating 1.25 billion yuan ($182 million) in benefits.

In the past three years, Zhang promoted 11 improved varieties and seven technologies, covering an area of 119,200 mu, and bringing in 148 million yuan, or about 6,000 yuan per person for 24,600 farmers.

Wu Rongmei works in a tea processing workshop. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

Wu has been engaged in the production, processing and technical promotion of Kaihua Longding tea for 27 years. She has introduced and promoted more than 5,000 mu of excellent tea varieties, bringing in more than 3 million yuan annually.

Wu also developed a new processing technology for Kaihua Longding tea, which has increased the average price of new products by 20-40 yuan per kilogram, and increased annual earnings by more than 2 million yuan.