Accumulation and thin hair are gifts given by time to those who persist.
Ning Jingming has been focusing on intelligent tea processing and digital quality control technology for a long time, conducting scientific research and social services, and has achieved remarkable results: being selected as a well-known expert leading talent by the Ministry of Science and Technology, a recipient of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, a first prize winner of the Anhui Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award, an academic and technological leader in Anhui Province, and an expert in the processing and resource utilization positions of the tea industry system in Anhui Province
Learning tea, loving tea, and researching tea, he smiled and said, "I've been busy working around tea for over 30 years."
"Research needs to sink down and do the most difficult thing"
"From the 5th to the 20th, we took the students to the tea base to practice making tea, and then went to Mount Huangshan District and Yuexi County to carry out technical guidance. In the afternoon, we had to go to Shexian County..." Ning Jingming looked at the secret itinerary on the desk calendar and sighed that there was no idle person in the past.
Busy is the norm in Ning Jingming's life, but he enjoys it as much as he loves it.
Since coming to study at An Nong University in 1994, Ning Jingming has been fully immersed in the mysterious world composed of leaves amidst the fragrance of tea.
Scientific research must sink down, settle down, cultivate tirelessly, dare to do the most difficult things, climb one mountain after another.
Tea production has gone through a development process from pure manual, semi manual, semi mechanical to digital. But even in digital production and processing, key links still require manual intervention and control. In 2006, Ning Jingming and his team began research on intelligent tea processing, committed to using sensors to completely replace manual labor to achieve intelligent tea processing throughout the entire process.
It's easier said than done! Ten years ago, the temperature control system of the drum killing machine was extremely unstable, with a large range of changes, and the temperature difference between the upper and lower parts even reached 50 degrees. The goal of controlling the killing water content at 60% could not be achieved. A group of people racked their brains but couldn't find the crux.
"I don't believe it anymore, can't I solve this problem?" Ning Jingming stubbornly came up and immersed himself in the laboratory, pondering. He then went to the tea machine factory again to consult with experts in intelligent control, and finally found a breakthrough - the PLC control system parts did not match. Finally, the small parts bought by the Chenghuang Temple for 10 yuan successfully solved the long-standing problem. After more than a decade of unremitting efforts, in the first half of 2024, after the final stage of testing, the first intelligent production line will be officially announced for application.
Ning Jingming believes that students not only need to master solid theoretical knowledge, but also need to hone their experience in the social classroom, so that theoretical knowledge can be organically combined with social practice, and their papers can be written in the tea mountains, factories, and the world of rural revitalization.
He often warns students that learning tea should not be afraid of hardship, as long as they experience it in practice, they can apply what they have learned.
The 200 degree high temperature tea frying pot was arranged in an orderly manner, and the emerald green sprouts touched the hot bottom of the pot, immediately making a sound! "To stir fry quickly, keep your hands on the tea and the tea in the pot. This step is to kill the green..." In a 200 square meter house with more than 30 tea pots, Ning Jingming shuttled back and forth, closely monitoring the students' movements and occasionally guiding them. At the end of the day, one needs to walk over ten thousand steps. Hand frying tea is very laborious. At the beginning, due to lack of experience, it is often scalded to the point where the hands are covered in water bubbles. Ning Jingming smiled and said that these bubbles are the "medals" of tea learners.
"A leaf brings wealth to a local person"
The sound of pedestrians talking, roosters honking, tricycles honking... Outside the window, there was a lot of noise. At 5:50 in the morning, the countryside had already broken the tranquility and opened the curtain of the day.
From around 4am when he lay down in his clothes, Ning Jingming only squinted for an hour. After a brief wash, I quickly ran to the factory to check the tea that was cooked overnight yesterday. At 8 o'clock, the workers also arrived one after another. Everyone gathered together to review and summarize, and then immersed themselves in a new round of busyness.
After 48 hours of hard work, I can't remember how many rounds of spreading, killing, shaping, drying, repeated production, and evaluation... Finally, when boiling water is poured into the cup, the green color flutters in the water and slowly unfolds, like dancing butterflies, taking a gentle sip, the taste is fresh and mellow.
Ning Jingming's furrowed brow relaxed as the high-quality tea "Jincuilan" was finally developed successfully.
Yuexi Cuilan has a emerald green color, and when it enters the water, it spreads into flowers. Its aroma is elegant and deeply loved by tea lovers. The average altitude of Yuexi Tea Plantation is above 600 meters, and it can only be mined before and after the Qingming Festival every year. It is in the shape of orchids and has a fragrant fragrance. But by the end of April and early May, tea leaves had grown too large, and their leaf shape and taste were not as good as before, making them unsuitable for making orchid shaped tea. Tea farmers often cut them down and abandoned them. Ning Jingming went to Yuexi several times for inspection, and upon seeing this scene, he felt very regretful.
How to extend the tea picking period, increase the yield per mu, and increase the income of tea farmers? He has been thinking.
In June 2023, Ning Jingming brought two graduate students to Gufang Township, Yuexi County, Anhui Province. In addition to the already well-known Yuexi Cuilan, he developed high-quality Yuexi "Golden Cuilan" tea. When it went public, sales were impressive, and in May alone, the average income per tea farmer increased by at least 2000 yuan.
When it comes to Ning Jingming, whether it is a technical cadre in the tea industry management department or a tea farmer in a tea enterprise, everyone speaks highly of him. "It's not an exaggeration to say that without Teacher Ning, there wouldn't be Huoshan Huangxiao Tea," said Liu Jintang, the general manager of Huoshan Yunwufeng Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd. excitedly.
Huoshan is the main production area of yellow tea. Due to the complex process, the older generation used to rely on experience to make a small amount of yellow tea for their own consumption, which was not promoted to the market. In order to maximize the use of fresh leaves and effectively help tea farmers increase their income, Ning Jingming came to Huoshan for on-site inspection and personally made tea. The first batch of Huangxiaocha was officially launched in 2018 and received high praise upon its launch. Huangxiaocha also successfully applied for county-level intangible cultural heritage projects, becoming a prominent brand name card. Now Huoshan Huangxiaocha has become one of the top yellow Xiaocha teas in China, winning honors such as the gold medal at the 2021 Mengdingshan Tea Competition and the gold medal at the 2023 Asia Pacific International Tea Competition. Tea farmers have also tasted the sweetness, increasing their income by 3000 yuan per acre.
"We need to pass this relay baton down."
2020 is an extraordinary year for Ning Jingming.
This year, the "National College Huang Danian style Teacher Team" in his tea science major has gone through more than 20 years of research and application, breaking through key technological bottlenecks such as temperature precision control, continuous rolling, and shaping in green tea processing. They have created an automated green tea processing technology system and production line, opening the way for large-scale, continuous, and clean processing of green tea in China. The related achievements have significantly improved the modernization level of green tea processing and the international competitiveness of products in China, and won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award.
Ning Jingming caressed the certificate with relief and felt the immense power: "I am very excited. I have such a strong team behind me, and I feel the strong momentum of scientific research to promote agriculture..."
It is this team, with Professor Wan Xiaochun and Professor Xia Tao as the core, and young and middle-aged scholars as the backbone, that is determined to climb the scientific research highland and is committed to promoting China from a tea producing country to a tea producing country.
The fragrance of plum blossoms comes from the bitter cold. Through the perseverance and inheritance of generations of tea masters, Ning Jingming and his team members have also achieved fruitful results.
As the main contributor, the achievement of "Research on Key Technologies and Equipment Creation for Digital Quality Control of Tea" won the first prize of Anhui Province's Science and Technology Progress Award, promoting the rapid improvement of digital quality control technology and equipment level for tea quality and safety in China; As the main contributor, the achievement of "Innovation of Key Technology System for Yellow Tea Processing and Exploration of Health Attributes" won the first prize of Anhui Province's Science and Technology Progress Award, and the comprehensive technology is at the international leading level
"This is a great platform, and it coincides with a good era of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship. Our predecessors have already walked the 'Dabie Mountain Road', and we must firmly move forward..." Looking ahead to the future, Ning Jingming is full of confidence and full of enthusiasm.
Over the years, focusing on talent cultivation, scientific research, and social services, he has always adhered to his original aspiration and cultivated a group of applied talents who can conduct scientific research and make tea. In the past 5 years, a total of 4 doctoral graduates and 52 master's graduates have been trained in tea studies. Among them, one person was awarded an excellent doctoral thesis in Anhui Province, one person was awarded an excellent graduate in Anhui Province, and ten people were awarded the National Scholarship for Graduate Studies during their studies.
As a national special envoy of science and technology and an excellent science and technology envoy of Anhui Province, Ning Jingming has also been committed to actively contributing to poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. Every year, there are more than 200 days of service for industrial technology guidance and training, serving more than 40 leading tea enterprises, conducting technical training for 5000 people, benefiting more than 1000 tea farmers, and covering Anhui, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi
Ning Jingming, who loves tea as much as his life, has a special mission - to promote traditional tea culture, spread tea technology, and start from being a child. At the "Tea Science Popularization Education Base" and the "Huizhou Tea Culture Curriculum Practice Base", Ning Jingming teaches children handmade tea by hand, explaining each step of the production process and culture of handmade tea, including withering, rolling, and drying.
Day and moon flow like a stream, growing from a thirst for knowledge student to a renowned teacher of education, from a scientific research novice to a selected innovative leading talent of the Ministry of Science and Technology. This road has been walked by Ning Jingming for 30 years. For Ning Jingming, the greatest honor is to cultivate and educate people for the country, empower technology to serve agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, and actively contribute to the development of agriculture through what he has learned.