On August 16, a significant milestone was achieved as the Institute of Grassland Research under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), alongside the CAAS Northern Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Technology Innovation Center, and Bayannur Shengmu Hi-Tech Ecological Grass Industry Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Shengmu Grassland") held the unveiling ceremony for their jointly established technology innovation center. This event marks the official operational launch of a technology innovation hub built through the collaboration between a national-level scientific research platform and a nationally recognized key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization.

The establishment of the Shengmu Grassland Technology Innovation Center represents a practical implementation of the national strategy to channel scientific and technological resources downward while reinforcing the central role of enterprises in innovation. The center fully leverages the CAAS's research expertise and talent pool in germplasm resources and ecological governance, combining them with the industrial foundation, experimental bases, and frontline practical experience that Shengmu Grassland has accumulated over more than a decade of dedicated work in the Ulan Buh Desert. This collaboration creates a comprehensive innovation system integrating government, industry, academia, research, and application, encompassing technology development, experimental demonstration, achievement commercialization, and talent cultivation. The initiative aims to tackle key technical challenges in desert ecological restoration, forage breeding, sandy soil improvement, and water-saving agriculture, effectively translating scientific research into practical solutions for the desert regions of northern China.

For years, Shengmu Grassland has maintained its presence in the Ulan Buh Desert, adhering to a development path that combines ecological industrialization with industrial ecology. The company has consistently focused on desertification control, high-quality forage cultivation, and the development of specialty agricultural products under the "Yuanmu Youpin" brand, accumulating extensive frontline practical experience. Through this collaboration with CAAS, the company achieves a two-way integration of national-level scientific research intelligence and enterprise industrial practice advantages. During the symposium, representatives from all three parties engaged in thorough discussions on cooperation directions based on the actual agricultural and animal husbandry development conditions in the desert region.

The technology innovation center will concentrate efforts in several key areas. First, it will focus on seed industry breakthroughs by jointly conducting breeding research for high-quality forage varieties, enhancing independent innovation capabilities in the grass seed industry, and strengthening the "Chinese core" of the grass industry. Second, it will emphasize platform co-building, striving to create an autonomous region-level agricultural and animal husbandry technology innovation platform that serves as a source of new quality productive forces in this field. Third, it will target technological breakthroughs in critical industrial challenges such as sandy soil improvement, organic cultivation, green pest prevention and control, and smart agricultural machinery applications. Fourth, it will drive scenario innovation by developing demonstration applications including smart grasslands and full-chain quality traceability systems, utilizing technologies such as the Internet of Things, soil moisture monitoring, intelligent water-saving irrigation, drone remote sensing, and big data analytics to reduce water consumption costs through digital means while improving land output efficiency, thereby exploring smart planting models suitable for desert regions. Additionally, leveraging desert organic planting resources, the center will explore and enhance the diverse value of "Yuanmu Youpin" brand desert organic agricultural products, conducting research in fresh-keeping storage and deep processing to rapidly transform scientific achievements into tangible product and market competitiveness.

According to available information, the CAAS Institute of Grassland Research has already dispatched a technology vice president to join the enterprise, facilitating the flow of high-level talent into the company. Simultaneously, both parties have established a normalized joint research mechanism that opens up a rapid transformation channel from research and development to industrial application, truly realizing the goal of "writing papers on the land" and converting scientific research achievements into genuine industrial productivity.

This collaboration between Shengmu Grassland and the national-level scientific research institution extends far beyond simple technical cooperation. It represents a strategic action in which national scientific research capabilities precisely empower leading enterprises, contributing to national food security and the assurance of important agricultural product supply. It constitutes a pioneering exploration in promoting the transformation and upgrading of agriculture and animal husbandry toward scale, intelligence, and high quality, while cultivating new quality productive forces in agriculture. Furthermore, it serves as a benchmark demonstration of translating the central government's decisions and arrangements regarding agriculture, rural areas, and farmers into concrete practices of revitalizing agriculture through science and technology and enriching farmers through industrial development.

Looking ahead, the jointly established technology innovation center will support the enterprise in deepening its dual main lines of "ecological restoration plus modern agriculture." Through continuous technological innovation, it will optimize the 200-square-kilometer desert organic industry system in the Ulan Buh Desert, promote the deep integration of the 6,200-mu shelterbelt ecological supporting facilities with the "Yuanmu Youpin" brand specialty agricultural planting industry, and continuously improve the circular development model of "desert control, grass planting, agriculture revitalization, and farmer prosperity," consolidating the enterprise's leading position in the desert ecological industry. The center will also empower high-end upgrading of the entire industrial chain by continuously iterating organic planting, deep processing of agricultural products, and smart agriculture technologies, perfecting the organic standardized technical system from field planting to dining table, and further polishing the "Yuanmu Youpin" organic agricultural product brand. Additionally, it will strengthen the demonstration and leadership role of the industry, driving regional agricultural and animal husbandry industrial upgrading through core scientific and technological capabilities, assisting in improving local specialty agriculture quality and increasing farmer income, fulfilling corporate social responsibility, and establishing a benchmark for desert ecological agriculture and animal husbandry scientific innovation in the northwest. This will ultimately contribute to ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin, exploring replicable and scalable new models for desert area industrial development, and achieving coordinated progress in ecological, economic, and social benefits.

Text and photos: Correspondent Pang Xiaobiao