"Meiduodu" watermelon trial planting successful, farmers smile with increased income | HuiGong "Double Hundred Action"

Recently, the rural science and technology team of the “Double Hundred Action” service project from Huizhou Vocational College of Engineering visited Jiahakou Village in Yaoshan Town, Nanhua City, to follow up on the trial planting and harvest of the new “Meidudu” watermelon variety introduced in 2025, aiming to help farmers increase their income through the promotion of high-quality seeds and to solidify grassroots technological support work.

At the beginning of the visit, the team held discussions with Lian Feixiang, the person in charge of the “Hundred Million Project” in Yaoshan Town. Lian Feixiang reported that the promoted “Meidudu” watermelon is growing well and has excellent quality. Most trial farmers highly recognize the advantages of this variety, including high yield, good sweetness, resistance to cracking, and uniform shape. Lian Feixiang stated that the income-increasing effect of the new variety has been preliminarily verified, and farmers have expressed their intention to continue purchasing seeds and expand their planting scale.

To verify the actual planting results, the team randomly visited Peng Xuanmin, a large watermelon grower in Jiahakou Village. It was learned that this farmer received two bags of “Meidudu” watermelon seeds, approximately 300 seeds, through the rural science and technology commissioner project of Huizhou Vocational College of Engineering in 2025, and conducted trial planting on an area of about 0.6 mu. Measured data showed that the yield of this variety reached 10,000 jin per mu, far exceeding the traditional watermelon yield level of 5,000-6,000 jin per mu, nearly doubling the yield. This variety naturally sets fruit, with an average of 2.5 fruits per plant, each weighing 10-17 jin, and the fruit shape is regular with good marketability. Calculating based on a wholesale price of 1 yuan per jin in 2025, the output value per mu is nearly 10,000 yuan. The substantial income encouraged farmer Peng Xuanmin to decide to directly expand cultivation to 3 mu this year.

Seeing the verified income-increasing effect of the new variety, effectively helping farmers increase their income and gaining recognition from villagers, the rural science and technology team from Huizhou Vocational College of Engineering felt very gratified, stating that their original intention of serving farmers with technology has become even more firm.

Text and images by reporter Lin Haisheng, correspondent Li Chaohuai.