LI Suhuan, a member of the Communist Party of China, serves as a deputy to the 13th and 14th National People’s Congress (NPC). She is a graduate of the Business Administration (Township Enterprise Management) at Hebei Open University. In 2015, she was recognised as a member of the All-China Youth Federation. In 2020, she was elected as a “National Model Worker”. In 2021, she was honoured with the title of “National Role Model of Women’s Meritorious Service”.

Since the establishment of the LI Suhuan Fruit and Vegetable Cooperative in Baoding City in 2009, LI as the head of the Cooperative has been leading her fellow villagers towards prosperity at an accelerating pace. The cooperative has collaborated with multiple research institutions, established the Taihang Mountain Agricultural Innovation Station, and founded a watermelon research institute. As a result, the watermelon industry in Qingyuan District, Baoding city has grown significantly. In 2015, she introduced an intelligent control system, built smart greenhouses, and implemented water-saving irrigation technologies. Additionally, LI has partnered with various research institutions to set up agricultural innovation stations, ensuring that scientific knowledge yields more fruitful outcomes for wealth creation.

With the popularisation of social media, LI has also ventured into live streaming. “When others prefer to sell products and make money through live streaming, I use it to spread technical knowledge,” she explained, “I find it very meaningful to teach agricultural techniques through short videos and live streams”. Her audience includes not only farmers but also many agricultural college students and “new-style farmers”.

This year, LI brought high-quality watermelon seedlings, co-developed with Hebei Agricultural University, to the Two Sessions. “These seedlings are extraordinary - they are grafted from ordinary watermelons and wild watermelons, with strong disease resistance and the ability to be replanted year after year, solving the long-standing issue of watermelon’s unsuitability for continuous cropping,” she said. LI emphasised that the key to innovation lies in talent, so her suggestion this year focuses on cultivating more agricultural science and technology talent.

Source: Compiled from Hebei Daily, WeChat Official Accounts of “Qingyuan Women’s Federation”

and “Voice of Yuanyang”