Thoughts on Science and Technology Service in Agricultural Research Institutes: Taking Institute of Plant Protection of Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences as an Example

Zheng CHEN, Lixian CUI, Chunhong LIU, Guangyuan MA*

1. Institute of Plant Protection of Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences/IPM Center of Hebei Province/Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management on Crops in Northern Region of North China, Ministry of Agriculture, Baoding 071000, China; 2. Institute of Changli Fruit Tree, Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Changli 066600, China

Abstract Scientific and technological services are necessary for strengthening agriculture. Under the new situation, agricultural research institutes should give full play to their advantages, strive to innovate scientific and technological services methods, and improve scientific and technological service levels. Combined with the practice of science and technology work of Institute of Plant Protection of Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, this paper made an in-depth analysis on the present situations and existing problems in the scientific and technological services of agricultural research institutes. Based on the analysis, it came up with recommendations including change ideological concepts, strengthening service awareness, adhering to people-oriented principle, enhancing the team building, improving mechanism construction, stimulating innovative vitality, exploring service methods, and enriching service connotation, so as to improve scientific and technological service works.

Key words Plant protection, Scientific and technology services, Agricultural research institutes

1 Introduction

The 19th National Congress of CPC proposed the implementation of rural revitalization strategy. The No. 1 central document in 2018 determined the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy as a decisive historical mission for building a well-off society in an all-round way and building a modern socialist China, and also a key to the efforts concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the new era[1]. In 2018, No. 1 document of Hebei Provincial Party Committee once again clearly defined the theme of "Implementing the Rural Revitalization Strategy" to accelerate the modernization of the rural administration system and governance capabilities, and accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas[2]. As an important measure of agricultural disaster prevention and mitigation, plant protection is a key component and important scientific and technological support for the construction and development of modern agriculture, and it is of great significance for ensuring national food security, agricultural product quality safety, ecological environment safety, and accelerating agricultural transformation and upgrading[3].

Under the new situation, agricultural research institutes should focus on No. 1 documents of both central and provincial governments, accurately grasp the spirit of the documents, give full play to the advantages of plant protection technology, strive to innovate scientific and technological services, improve scientific and technological services, increase agricultural efficiency and farmers’ income, and accelerate agricultural transformation and upgrading, which are the top priority[4]. Scientific and technological services are necessary for strengthening agriculture. Only when scientific and technological service for the "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" as a key issue, and writing papers in the field, can the social value of agricultural research institutes be truly reflected[5].

2 Present situation of scientific and technological service work of Institute of Plant Protection of Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences

The Institute of Plant Protection of Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences (IPP of HAAFS) focuses on the comprehensive prevention and demonstration of diseases, pests and weeds of wheat, maize, cotton, protected vegetables and fruit trees, and adopts "fixed base + mobile base" combined model. In terms of personnel organization, it adopts the full-time personnel of the Agricultural Technology Extension Department to do scientific and technological services with cooperation of the part-time scientific research personnel to carry out targeted technical services. Every year, it trains technicians and farmers nearly 100 times in various forms, trains more than 8 800 farmers and technical backbones, distributes more than 30 000 copies of technical documents, answers farmers’ plant protection technical questions through technical consultation telephones, scientific text messages,etc. Annually, about 100 000 farmers directly receive services.

2.1 Constantly expanding the base constructionIt implements the "Science and Technology Achievement Demonstration Project" in an in-depth manner. Taking new business entities such as family farms, large professional households, cooperatives or associations as major service objects, it focuses on building a transformation base for achievements in wheat, maize, fruit trees, vegetables and edible fungi, and has achieved obvious demonstration and driving effects and has been widely accepted by farmers.

Shunping Peach Green Production Technology Demonstration Base demonstrated and popularized the comprehensive prevention and control technology forGrapholitamolesta(Busck), which has a prevention effect of more than 95%, a 30% reduction in the use of chemical pesticides, a high-quality fruit rate of more than 90%, and a benefit of 225 000 yuan/ha, the income increased by more than 40%. In 2016, it was incorporated into the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei agricultural science and technology collaborative innovation joint construction achievement transformation base. Cang County Demonstration Base of Green Prevention and Control Technology for Wheat and Maize Diseases, Pests and Weeds demonstrated and popularized the green prevention and control technologies for diseases, pests and weeds of wheat and maize. Compared with conventional control, the frequency of application is reduced by 50%, the use of chemicals is reduced by more than 10%, the yield of wheat is increased by 1 125 kg/ha, and the yield of maize is increased by 725 kg/ha, with an average added benefit of 315 yuan/ha. Qing County Vegetable Quality and Efficiency Industrial Technology Demonstration Base mainly undertook the comprehensive control technology demonstration combined with biological control, chemical control and other measures, established a cucumber-based comprehensive vegetable pest control demonstration area to detect detect the resistance of cucumberPerenosporasparsaBerk to commonly used agents. Fuping County Edible Fungus Industry Technology Demonstration Base, following the management model of "unified construction of sheds, unified production of fungus sticks, unified management technology, unified production standards, unified purchase and sale, and separate shed management of mushroom farmers", introduced high-quality shiitake (Lentinusedodes) varieties and cultivated anti-season 1 million sticks of shelf mushrooms, 100 000 sticks of ground mushrooms, and 60 000 sticks of winter mushrooms.

2.2 Continuously enhancing the social influence(i) Implementing the "technology service upgrade project" in an in-depth manner. The IPP of HAAFS arranges experts to provide timely services in accordance with the farming season, provides emergency services for pest control, and meets the needs of the government and farmers at request, and earnestly performs its responsibilities duties, to give full play to its professional expertise, and actively provide scientific and technological services. It carries out technology popularization and popular science propaganda through special training, on-site "visiting", experimental demonstration, and network communication. (ii) Implementing special program for science and technology personnel in "three regions". Since 2014, the IPP of HAAFS has sent 63 experts to more than 20 poverty-stricken areas including Weichang, Linxi, Yuxian, Lingshou, Quyang, Shunping, Wuqiao, Weixian, Chicheng, Fuping and Laiyuan to carry out long-term and targeted scientific and technological services, conducted more than 230 centralized trainings for farmers and grassroots technical personnel, and distributed more than 90 000 copies of documents. The teaching content involved comprehensive control and cultivation management techniques for plant diseases, pests and weeds such as vegetables, wheat, maize, cotton, and Chinese medicinal materials. Besides, it provided on-site technical guidance for nearly 160 times, and established a telephone consultation hotline with the service county to answer farmers’ questions at any time and propose treatment plans, which solved practical difficulties for farmers and improved the scientific and technological quality and skills of getting rich.

2.3 Constantly providing in-depth technological poverty alleviationImplementing the poverty alleviation policy and ensuring the targeted poverty alleviation. The director of the IPP of HAAFS actively responded to the call of the state, province and academy as the first secretary of the working group of Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences in Nanyao Village, Qingsanying Township, Chongli District, and actively carried out targeted poverty alleviation work. Taking the fundamental purpose of enhancing the blood-making function of poverty-stricken areas, the working team has undertaken multiple household surveys, changed the concept of poor households, and accurately implemented the measures of industrial poverty alleviation, infrastructure, and social assistance. In 2016, the per capita income of Nanyao Village increased by more than 3 600 yuan, and the poverty alleviation rate of the whole village reached 92%. The working team was awarded the title of "Advanced Working Team in the Targeted Poverty Alleviation in Villages of Hebei Province" in 2016. In 2017, the per capita net income exceeded 10 000 yuan, the whole village realized the stable poverty alleviation. In this period, the IPP of HAAFS played its own scientific and technological advantages to assist the working team in demonstrating and popularizing new plant protection technologies to achieve a "zero" breakthrough in large shed beans in Nanyao Village.

3 Problems in scientific and technological services

3.1 Weak service awareness and shallow understandingWith the constant deepening of the structural reforms on the agricultural supply side and the continuous upgrading of agricultural technology, farmers’ demand for scientific and technological services has also reached higher standards, contents become richer, and fields are much wider. However, due to the imperfect management system and mechanism, the concept of "emphasis on scientific research and neglect of service" prevails in agricultural scientific research institutes[6]. The importance of scientific and technological services is not well understood, and there is often a lack of enthusiasm and initiative and creativity in work, there is even the phenomenon of perfunctory attitude in work, which makes it difficult to meet the growing demand of farmers for agricultural technology[7].

3.2 Insufficient talents and lack of compound talentsTalent is the foundation for promoting scientific and technological services. Nevertheless, little attention is paid to scientific and technological services, and current related work is mainly based on project needs, the existing teams of various disciplines temporarily organize scientific and technical personnel to participate. As a result, there is shortage of talents and the technical level of agricultural scientific and technological service teams is low. In addition, due to the limitations of the plant protection profession, the knowledge and practical experience of scientific researchers on varieties, water and fertilizer, and field management techniques are often insufficient, which influences the overall effect of demonstration of scientific and technological services. Therefore, it is urgent to solve the problem of how to establish a scientific and technological service team with high-quality and high-efficiency compound talents in the current scientific and technological service work.

3.3 Imperfect system and weak initiativeDue to the influence and restriction of the scientific research project management system, the agricultural research institutes generally have a complete set of mechanisms for scientific research project management. However, in terms of scientific and technological services, the systematic management system has not yet been established, and the supporting systems still need to be improved, or although there are relevant regulations, the implementation is not in place, accordingly influencing the enthusiasm and initiative of scientific and technological personnel engaged in technological services[8].

3.4 Single service method and weak effectIn scientific and technological services, the formulation and implementation of supporting policies were not put in place, and there are few effective planning and long-term assistance. The service methods are mainly simple technical training, guidance, on-site observation meetings,etc. Besides, service methods are single and backward, and poorly targeted, resulting in limited number of participants and small service targets. In addition, due to insufficient time, energy and material resources to ensure the development and promotion of new products and technologies, the service quality is not high and the effect is not good, which greatly dampens the enthusiasm of farmers to learn new knowledge and master new technologies[6].

4 Recommendations for strengthening agricultural and technological services works of agricultural research institutes

4.1 Changing ideas and strengthening service awareness

(i) It is recommended to strengthen the attention, break through the traditional ideological misunderstanding of "emphasizing scientific research and neglecting service", truly attach equal importance to scientific and technological services and scientific and technological innovation, and treat scientific and technological services as a major issue in the development of the research institute, and enhance the employees’ sense of urgency, responsibility and mission for scientific and technological services[7, 9]. (ii) It is recommended to strengthen the propaganda of service awareness, change the prejudice against scientific and technological service work, encourage scientific and technological service personnel to get willing to engage in scientific and technological service work, take the initiative to take root in the grassroots, based on the field, establish the concept of long-term service and active service[6]. For example, the IPP of HAAFS organized activities such as scientific and technological service ideas exchange meetings and mobilization meetings through implementing the "technology service upgrade project" in an in-depth manner and special program for science and technology personnel in "three regions", which effectively enhances the awareness of scientific and technological employees for the importance of scientific and technological services. It also put the strengthening of scientific and technological services into the conscious actions of employees.

4.2 Adhering to people-oriented principle and enhancing the team buildingIn the first place, it is recommended to take people-oriented, create a good atmosphere, establish a scientific concept of talents, and jointly creates a good atmosphere of stressing, loving, attracting, cherishing, protecting and cultivating talents[8], attaching importance to the cultivation and introduction of agricultural scientific and technological service talents, and build a scientific and technological service team with strong professional quality, rich experience in scientific and technological services, and caring about three rural issues and willing to devote through a variety of methods. In the second place, it is recommended to build a platform to cultivate compound talents, take project undertaking, academic exchanges, and business training as platforms to improve the professional quality and service level of scientific researchers, encourage researchers to select and establish projects across disciplines, and regularly develop new field of vision and knowledge in various disciplines, new technologies, and discipline development trend, encourage researchers to continue their studies, broaden their horizons and knowledge systems, and accelerate the growth of compound talents. For example, taking the advantage of the "one multi-center, cross-institution group center", the pattern of discipline clusters, and the practical cooperation in plant protection technology innovation in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei,etc., the IPP of HAAFS strengthened the academic exchanges of interdisciplinary scientific research personnel.

4.3 Improving the system and mechanism construction and stimulating the innovation vitalityTo provide better scientific and technological services, we must work hard on the incentive mechanism, and implement it without compromise. (i) It is recommended to improve the evaluation system, formulate effective performance evaluation methods, formulate an evaluation system with scientific and technological services as the main content, establish a target responsibility system, and put scientific and technological services and technological innovation in the equal place. (ii) It is recommended to improve the reward and punishment system, stimulate innovation vitality, reform the title evaluation mechanism through the establishment of a reward system, and reward scientific and technological research personnel according to the situation of scientific and technological personnel going to the countryside, the quality of scientific and technological services, the scale of demonstration base construction, and the level social influence[10]. (iii) It is recommended to provide stable financial support, ensure the solid and effective development of scientific and technological services, remove the worries of scientific and technological service personnel, and change the passive participation of "top-down" into "people-oriented" and "bottom-up" active participation, make effort to improve the level of farmers’ production technology, write papers in the field, and promote sustainable agricultural development[11-12].

4.4 Exploring service methods and enriching service connotation(i) It is recommended to determine the status of farmers in the application of technology, improve the effectiveness of agricultural technological services, and raise attention to the characteristics and dynamic changes of farmers’ technical needs. (ii) It is recommended to take diversified methods to select advanced, practical, and effective results and technologies, do a good job in the provision and promotion of scientific and technological services, and use farmers’ "satisfaction and acceptance" as the service standard, and take the "visible, touchable" effect to evaluate the quality of service. For example, in 2009, the researcher Sun Qian from the IPP of HAAFS organized more than 200 skillful vegetable growers to set up Hebei Vegetable Farmers Science and Technology Club. Now, the club has grown to nearly 10 000 members. Through this platform, researcher Sun Qian delivered new technologies and new ideas for green prevention and control of vegetable diseases and insect pests to the fields, which has provided a great help for millions of farmers to get rich. (iii) It is recommended to strengthen cooperation with local governments, give full play to the advantages of both parties, and learn from each other. Through many types of flexible cooperation methods such as the signing of cooperation agreements and jointly sharing projects, it is expected to realize sharing of information and resources, and achieve the purpose of jointly carrying out scientific and technological services and promotion of achievements. For example, in 2018, on the basis of the work in Shunping Peach Green Production Technology Demonstration Base, the IPP of HAAFS signed a cooperation agreement with the People’s Government of Shunping County to jointly build the "Shunping County Green Peach Industry Demonstration Base", which gave full play to the advantages of all parties, explored a new model of base construction, and actively promoted the upgrading and standardization of the Shunping peach industry, and greatly promoted the expansion and extension of related industrial chains.