During August, corn enters its grain-filling stage. In Lijiabao Town, Anding District, Dingxi City, Gansu Province, Tian Xin, a doctoral student in the 2024 cohort specializing in crop cultivation and farming systems at Gansu Agricultural University and a resident researcher at the Gansu Anding Corn Science and Technology Backyard, led a team of students from multiple universities into the experimental fields to measure leaf indicators and monitor soil moisture levels. Such fieldwork has become routine at the Backyard.
Built on the foundation of the Dryland Agriculture Comprehensive Experimental Station of Gansu Agricultural University, this facility is dedicated to advancing research on efficient water and soil resource utilization, drought-resistant high-yield crop cultivation, and the regulation of dryland agricultural ecosystems. Its mission is to drive the continuous demonstration and adoption of green agricultural technologies while contributing to local farmers' income growth.
"Through repeated household visits, field surveys, and experimental measurements, I have come to realize that agricultural research is not merely about obtaining accurate data or publishing high-quality papers—it demands stepping out of the classroom and into the fields to confront the real, tangible problems in agricultural production, ensuring that research outcomes take root in the soil and serve thousands of farming households," Tian Xin said.
According to Professor Li Lingling, head of the Backyard and Dean of the Graduate School at Gansu Agricultural University, the facility has established a collaborative mentorship framework built around "chief experts, on-campus supervisors, off-campus advisors, and resident graduate students." At present, the team comprises nine on-campus supervisors and four off-campus advisors, whose guidance spans field experiments, technology dissemination, and farmer training. "Resident graduate students spend more than 180 days annually at the site, conducting degree research on production issues such as conservation tillage, substituting organic fertilizers for chemical ones, forage corn cultivation, crop-livestock recycling, and plastic film recovery. This approach seamlessly integrates on-site practice, research training, and thesis topic selection within the same fields," Li explained.
Simultaneously, the Backyard zeroes in on the pressing challenges encountered by farmers in their daily operations, identifying problems alongside the farmers and resolving them at the production frontline, thereby delivering research outputs directly to the farmland.
"The plastic mulch preserves yields, but what should we do with the fragmented film remnants scattered across the fields after the autumn harvest?" This question, raised by local farmers during household visits, became a research focus. In response, the faculty and students conducted systematic assessments across more than ten indicators—including film recovery rates, soil moisture retention effects, and crop yields—and carried out multiple field experiments with various mulch films to comprehensively evaluate their performance. After years of trials, the team identified and promoted thicker, high-strength mulch films while continuously optimizing formulations for fully biodegradable films, with an emphasis on enhancing both cost-effectiveness and practicality. To date, the thicker high-strength films have been adopted across more than 1,500 mu, achieving a residual film recovery rate exceeding 90 percent. The improved biodegradable films are also undergoing demonstration applications in crops such as potatoes and medicinal herbs.
At the Backyard, volunteer services are far from one-way lectures where prepared knowledge is simply recited to farmers. Instead, the process begins with household visits and on-site inspections, followed by bringing identified issues back to the team for collective analysis under the guidance of supervisors and technical experts. Solutions are then relayed to farmers through live demonstrations and training sessions. As of now, the Backyard has delivered 11 categories of services, including field trials, on-site demonstrations, and technical training, reaching approximately 500 farmers in Mazichuan Village, Lumacha Village, and surrounding areas of Lijiabao Town for crop production training.
Furthermore, the Backyard consistently leverages specialized social practice programs as a vital channel for young students to engage with rural communities, understand agriculture, and serve farmers. It has sustained cross-university, cross-disciplinary, and cross-cultural initiatives, attracting nearly 100 undergraduate, master's, doctoral, and international students from six universities to participate in specialized fieldwork. Regardless of their institutional or disciplinary backgrounds, all participants follow the same path upon arrival—joining resident graduate students in the fields, where activities such as crop identification, experiment layout, soil sampling, and nutrient deficiency diagnosis transform from classroom and laboratory exercises into hands-on volunteer services.
In 2025, a joint practice team comprising over 20 undergraduate and graduate students from Gansu Agricultural University and China Agricultural University followed this very path, extending corn nutrient deficiency diagnostics, soil monitoring, and agricultural technical training from Anding District in Dingxi City all the way to Huining County in Baiyin City. Cheng Xi, a 2025 international student from Ghana enrolled in the crop cultivation and farming systems program at Gansu Agricultural University, participated in this year's "Science and Technology Backyard Youth Journey" social practice project. Reflecting on his experience, he said: "I had the opportunity to closely observe real Chinese villages and witness firsthand how agricultural research is tightly woven into the production and daily lives of ordinary farmers. Agricultural science should be rooted in the frontline of production, standing beside farmers, genuinely listening to their needs, and distilling scientific questions and research directions from practical farming realities."
The fields remain the same, yet the outcomes they yield grow richer with each passing year. To date, faculty and students have published over 100 high-quality papers, secured more than 20 authorized patents, earned three second-class provincial natural science awards and one special-class provincial teaching achievement award, and collected over 20 national and provincial accolades in competitions such as the "Challenge Cup" and the China International College Students' Innovation Competition. This has forged a complete educational chain: "identifying problems through practice, proposing solutions through research, refining outcomes through targeted efforts, feeding research back into teaching, and channeling services back into industry." In 2025, the Backyard was recognized as a national model case of excellent science and technology backyard operations and passed the national quality monitoring for agricultural professional degree graduate education.
This year, a dedicated practice team named "'Green Film' Smart Cultivation" was also formed to advance research on controllable, weather-resistant fully biodegradable mulch films. By pursuing two parallel pathways—modification of polymer materials and iterative optimization of production processes—the team aims to develop biodegradable films suited to the cold, arid, and windy conditions of Northwest China, with trials and promotion efforts currently underway.