Why are watermelons so cheap in China?

Take 2022 as an example. China's annual watermelon production is as high as 63.24 million tons, accounting for 60% of the world's annual watermelon production, making it the world's largest watermelon producer. Chinese watermelons are generally 4 to 8 yuan/kg, and the price in watermelon producing areas may be less than 2 yuan/kg.

Why can Chinese watermelons achieve "freedom for all"?

First of all, the vast planting area, suitable climatic conditions and sufficient labor force are important foundations for China's annual watermelon production to rank first in the world. After all, only sufficient production can meet domestic supply and demand, thereby avoiding imports and reducing market prices.

China's current watermelon planting technology is very advanced. Modern irrigation systems, greenhouse technology and planting management technology provide great convenience for fruit farmers, and also make the taste of the finished watermelon extremely delicious and stable. While reducing labor, it also saves labor costs, promotes a further decline in watermelon prices, and truly becomes a national fruit with good quality and low price.

The Chinese government's policy support for fruit farmers is also a key factor that cannot be ignored. Through the subsidy policy that benefits farmers, the interests of melon farmers are balanced, ensuring that watermelon growers can maintain long-term and stable production. These policies and planting techniques that benefit farmers are envied by Japan and South Korea.

China's "Western Melon King" Academician Wu Mingzhu

Apart from objective factors such as climate, policy, and technology, the reason why the Chinese people can achieve watermelon freedom is also thanks to one person. She has spent her entire life to achieve the freedom of eating melons for 1.4 billion people and is praised as the "Western Melon King". She is Academician Wu Mingzhu.

In the last century, watermelons were not as delicious and sweet as they are now. The top watermelon at that time was called "Shishan Watermelon". Although it was top-notch, it had thick skin and little flesh. It was rumored that 30 kilograms of melon had 20 kilograms of skin.

Wu Mingzhu was born in a highly educated family in Wuhan, Hubei in 1930. As the only daughter in the family, Wu Mingzhu received a good academic education since childhood and successfully passed the Southwest Agricultural College (now the Horticulture and Fruit and Vegetable Major of Southwest University) at the age of 19. She is an alumnus of Academician Yuan Longping.

Southwest Agricultural University has three achievements that are world-renowned. The first is that Yuan Longping's hybrid rice is well-deserved, the second is that Xiang Zhonghuai's mulberry science community is well-deserved, and the third is Wu Mingzhu, the mother of watermelon.

Agricultural majors require hard work in the fields. In order to facilitate work, Wu Mingzhu simply cut her hair short and applied to the organization to work in remote frontier areas.

In 1956, Wu Mingzhu, approved by the organization, came to the agricultural technology station on the east side of the Turpan Basin in Xinjiang. The environment here is harsh and poor, and the temperature difference between day and night is like winter and summer. People say that the Turpan Basin has a variety of fragrant fruits and vegetables, but in the 1950s and 1960s, the resources here were still quite scarce.

Wu Mingzhu came to Turpan alone, communicating with villagers during the day to record work and research, and organizing materials and studying hard at night. Without a partner, she had to learn Uyghur.

For three years, Wu Mingzhu visited every melon field in Turpan, collected a total of 44 varieties, and creatively established Xinjiang fruit and vegetable resource archives, paving a broad road for future generations.

Every excellent melon seed is a rare golden bean for Wu Mingzhu. Only by continuously cultivating excellent seeds can we break through the limits of varieties and harvest outstanding finished products.

In 1962, Wu Mingzhu's hard work finally paid off. The small green skin and red heart crisps she cultivated are still people's first choice. The red heart crisps were even used for state banquets that year.

In the following ten years, Wu Mingzhu traveled to many places in Hainan, successively improved watermelons and melons, and used ecological differences to take Chinese fruits and vegetables to a higher level, benefiting 1.4 billion people for a hundred years.

Until 1985, Academician Wu Mingzhu's husband Yang Qi suffered a recurrence of gastric cancer due to overwork and was nearing the end of his life. Wu Mingzhu took her first leave of absence for three months to accompany her husband in his last days, and expressed her high respect to every scientific researcher who explored innovation and devoted himself to his work.

After Yang Qi passed away, Wu Mingzhu put away her grief and devoted herself to scientific research again. Academician Wu Mingzhu has been engaged in scientific research for 62 years and has cultivated more than 30 excellent varieties. Among them, the seed cultivation of 8424 watermelon is still a state secret and no one knows it.