On the morning of September 19, an expert symposium of the citrus industry chain of Hubei Province was held at the Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology(HZAU). More than 20 people attended the meeting, including Deng Xiuxin (vice dean and academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Professor of College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences in HZAU), Chen Wubin (Party Group member and deputy director of Hubei Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and deputy director of the citrus industry chain), Yang Shaobo( vice president of HZAU )and the people in charge of Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Provincial Fruit Tea Office, relevant departments of Yichang city and experts of the citrus industry chain in Hubei Province.

Yang Shaobo expressed his gratitude to the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural areas and other departments for their long-term support for HZAU. He reviewed our citrus research team’s contribution to the development of Hubei citrus industry with scientific and technological innovation since the last century. He pointed out that, with the strong encouragement and technical support of Deng Xiuxin and his team, Zigui, Hubei Province has developed into the production area which features the longest supply period of citrus fresh fruit and the perfect industrial chain and technology chain. He stressed that school would be in accordance with the unified deployment of the province, further improve the policy and optimize mechanism, to encourage teachers and students to actively participate in and continue to promote the development of Hubei citrus industry chain. He hoped that experts should break down department and discipline barriers, carry out collaborative research, promote the resolution of core problems restricting the citrus industry in Hubei Province, and contribute to the improvement of quality and efficiency in the citrus industry in Hubei Province.
Chen Wubin introduced the implementation of the province's key agricultural industry chain project, giving a detailed introduction on the annual work plan, work concept and shortcomings of Hubei citrus industry chain in terms of varieties, technology, and brand.
The head of the Industrial Department of the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism explained the Measures for the Management of Supplementary Funds for the Citrus Industry Development Award in Hubei Province (discussion draft). The scholars had a discussion about the management of funds and the development of Hubei citrus industry chain.
Academician Deng Xiuxin first reviewed the development of Hubei citrus industry and analyzed its current situation and characteristics in his conclusion. He put forward working ideas in three links, such as seedling, planting and harvesting due to the practical problems in the industry in terms of orchard aging, variety aging and aging of employees. He also emphasized that orchard should develop in the way of appropriate scale, cooperative mode, high quality and mechanization. In his opinion, the government should provide policy guidance, support business operators who expertise in management and market and pay attention to regional differentiation and aging. He stressed that it is important to combine the construction of Hubei's citrus industry chain with cultural travel and excavate the spirit of hard graft in Zigui, rich citrus culture, and long-standing history of Qu Yuan and Wang Zhaojun.
It is reported that in August 2021, the Office of the Joint Conference on Agricultural Industrialization in Hubei Province issued “The Implementation Plan of Key Agricultural Industry Chains”, further clarifying the working group of ten major industry chains such as citrus, the list of expert teams, and the map of industry chains, with our university as the lead department of the expert team for the construction of the citrus industry chain in Hubei Province.

Source: http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2021/0920/61406.shtml
Translated by: Wang Yi, Xu Yuanxin
Supervised by: Zhang Juan