Yangzhou wins 17 provincial science awards

A total of 17 projects submitted by the Yangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau were honored at the 2017 Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Awards on Aug 28, including three first prizes and nine second prizes.

The Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Awards was first held in 1999 and is the largest event of its kind in the province.

This year's science and technology awards gathered 210 projects from Jiangsu, with 31 percent of them focusing on people's livelihoods including agriculture and medicine.

One of the highlights from Yangzhou is a project on the innovation and application of the key technologies of a rice transplanter.

The project was initiated in 2004 and has been supported by prestigious universities and institutes including Yangzhou University and the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

"It has become a reality that people don't need to bend down when transplanting rice paddy," said Huo Zhongyang, a professor from Yangzhou University who participates in the project.

Transplanting rice paddy by hand can cover no more than one mu (0.06 hectare) per day yet a rice transplanter can operate on 30-50 mu (2-3.3 hectare) per day, which can highly improve productivity and save on production costs.

Huo said the technology has effectively solved the problems caused by mechanized transplantation, such as unstable yield, and is vital to safeguarding national food safety.