The Yangtze River winds for over 600 kilometers in Chongqing, breaking through the unique terrain of mountains and hills, which account for up to 98% of the total area, and shaping more than 9000 villages. In the context of the rural revitalization strategy, in recent years, Southwest University has fully leveraged its advantages in agricultural technology and teacher education, rooted in the western part of China, actively promoted the exploration and practice of cultivating outstanding graduate students, and brought knowledge to rural fields and written papers on the land of the motherland. Do you know that Sichuan Rural Construction College, founded in 1933, is one of the predecessors of Southwest University? "In the exhibition hall of Southwest University's centennial achievements in strengthening agriculture and promoting agriculture, Pan Jia'en, Deputy Director of the Rural Revitalization Strategy Research Institute, is telling the first batch of" Rural Revitalization "special master's students about the glorious history of the university. On site, Tang Yitian, a 2024 master's student majoring in social work at the National School of Governance, listened attentively. As a student of the 'Rural Revitalization' special project, I hope to follow in the footsteps of my predecessors and leave my own mark in the journey of rural construction through action. The school, relying on the Rural Revitalization Strategy Research Institute and related research teams, has established a 'Rural Revitalization' special project to cultivate more outstanding talents who are determined to devote themselves to rural revitalization. ”Zhang Weiguo, Secretary of the Party Committee of Southwest University, introduced that the current enrollment program focuses on empowering rural governance, benchmarking the needs and expectations of rural areas, and providing specialized and customized training in the fields of rural development and social work. We adopt a segmented approach of '1+2' for training. From the second year of enrollment, students' learning and life are closely centered around the school's rural revitalization research project. They can truly enter the countryside and even 'eat and live together' with villagers, gaining experience and growth in deep service to rural construction and development. Therefore, unlike most students, Tang Yitian's learning 'home field' is a wider rural land than the campus, and following the mentor team to 'visit villages and households' is her daily learning and life for more than a year. Looking back on the axis of history, serving rural development has always been the persistent educational purpose of Southwest University, a western university. Once, pioneers of modern rural construction movements such as Yan Yangchu, Liang Shuming, and Lu Zuofu explored talent cultivation, technological improvement, and promotion in rural construction here. Today, there is another group of young people like Tang Yitian, who are full of passion and hard work on the vast rural fertile land of the new era... "Through perseverance and inheritance, rural construction has been more vividly expressed in the new era. ”Zhang Weiguo introduced that currently, in addition to the "Rural Revitalization" special project, the school has also established characteristic graduate talent training projects such as the "Science and Technology Academy" special project and the "Germplasm Creation" special project, innovating the graduate training mode and more accurately and targetedly cultivating high-level talents for rural revitalization. ——Professional upgrading brings true strength. The school strengthens the dynamic adjustment of majors, promotes the cross integration of agricultural science, agriculture and industry, agricultural culture, and agricultural economics, and lays out the construction of emerging majors such as biological breeding science and smart agriculture. It also offers interdisciplinary course modules such as smart horticulture, water resources, and ecological civilization. There are currently 23 agricultural majors, of which 12 have been selected as national first-class undergraduate major construction sites. Agricultural science has entered the top 1 ‰ of ESI (Basic Scientific Indicators Database) global rankings. ——Forge true skills in the field classroom. The school has jointly established more than 90 science and technology academies, expert courtyards, expert workstations, and innovative practice bases with more than 50 cities, counties, districts, and more than 100 enterprises in the western region. It actively promotes the practice of the "theoretical learning+rural practice" dual classroom teaching mode, organizes "rural revitalization master's and doctoral study camps", "Xixiaolan" to assist rural revitalization practice teams, and regularly organizes and dispatches graduate students to carry out in-depth rural practice. From rural construction to rural revitalization, this western university is drawing the shortest distance between the "ivory tower" and the "muddy ground". The layout and construction of major scientific research platforms for scientific research innovation in rural areas. The most beautiful flowers often grow on the highest peaks and deepest forests. ”This is the harvest and experience of Ruan Yunqiang, a 2024 master's student majoring in Agronomy and Seed Industry at the Citrus Research Institute of the university, during his repeated trips across mountains and rivers to collect citrus germplasm resources. Ruan Yunqiang is currently a graduate student in the Cultivation and Physiology Research Group of the Institute, engaged in hybrid citrus breeding research under the guidance of his supervisor. This spring, Ruan Yunqiang went to Yangjie Village, Yuanjiang Hani Yi Dai Autonomous County, Yunnan Province alone to collect Yunnan's characteristic citrus germplasm resources in the towering mountains of Yunling. Simply put, this job is to collect pollen from different types of citrus fruits. Picking flowers, peeling flowers, extracting anthers, baking pollen... what may seem like simple work is actually a delicate task, and each process must be complete and standardized to ensure the maximum activity and purity of pollen. Flower time is a command! ”Every spring, while people are still enjoying the romantic spring atmosphere, the members of the team have already started their "asceticism" of searching for "pollen"... But the "bitterness" they choose brings people a "sweetness" like citrus. With the joint efforts of teachers and students, the Citrus Research Institute where Ruan Yunqiang works has achieved remarkable results in breeding in recent years: the breeding technology of early maturing hybrid citrus is leading the world, with 8 new variety protection authorizations and 2 leading varieties from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. It has promoted a batch of citrus excellent new varieties with independent intellectual property rights, such as Wogan, to the whole country. The national promotion area of new varieties accounts for more than 70% of the newly added citrus area in China since the 12th Five Year Plan. In recent years, Southwest University has actively connected with the strategies of the Party and the country, completed the reorganization of the national key laboratory for efficient breeding and utilization of resource insects, and the construction of technology platforms such as the citrus germplasm resource bank and the silkworm germplasm resource bank. The school has also established a large science center for germplasm creation, carrying out large-scale, engineered, and intelligent germplasm creation. The school has also established a cutting-edge technology cross research institute to strengthen research in fields such as artificial intelligence, gene editing, and future food. In addition, the school is also building iconic international cooperation platforms in key countries and agricultural fields, establishing one Ministry of Science and Technology international cooperation demonstration base, eight international cooperation joint laboratories, and six subject innovation and talent introduction bases. Traveling back and forth between cutting-edge laboratories and vast rural areas, young students are interpreting the spiritual pursuit of "heart at the highest, root at the deepest" through their actions. Deep service rooted in the "soil" yields fruitful results. Only by having the most intimate contact with the mud can the most fruitful results be produced. ”As of April this year, Shen Yating, a 2023 master's student majoring in Resource Utilization and Plant Protection at the university, has been stationed at the Mingyue Mountain High Quality Grain and Oil Industry Technology Innovation Center for a full year. Recalling those moments of 'stepping on mud and holding hands with villagers', she always felt a surge of emotion. Once, under the guidance of the teacher, Shen Yating and her classmates were using the team's improved transplanting, side deep fertilization integrated machine to plant rice in the paddy field. Suddenly, heavy rain quickly turned the field into a swamp. The machine is struggling to move in the soft mud, and the pipeline is also blocked, making it impossible to fertilize properly. Faced with such a predicament, students jumped into the mud one after another, pushing the machine forward while manually applying new fertilizers to the seedlings, and finally successfully completed the task. Rainwater mixed with sweat, my eyes couldn't even open, but no one backed down in order to plant the crops well, "said Shen Yating. With the joint efforts of everyone, the center has achieved remarkable results within just one year after its unveiling: it has integrated three sets of high-efficiency technology models for rice fertilizer water synergy, innovated two Liangping rice processing technologies, and created six products... making positive contributions to the revitalization of local rural industries. In recent years, Southwest University has continuously deepened cooperation between the university and the local area, allowing young students to focus on their disciplines and majors, deeply serve local economic and social development, and write their papers in the fertile soil of rural areas. ——Technology helps agriculture and promotes industrial development. The school's guidance team for Huanglian, beef cattle, konjac and other crops has been deeply involved in technology assisted agriculture for more than 20 years, providing wings for the revitalization of rural industries. The konjac team alone has promoted konjac cultivation on over 16 million acres, adding nearly 30 billion yuan to the total output value of the konjac industry. ——Conduct research and serve rural governance. The school organizes graduate students to conduct investigations and research in rural areas and rural households. They actively participate in the third-party evaluation of the national consolidation and expansion of poverty alleviation achievements undertaken by the school, and the project has conducted research in more than 100 counties and 2000 villages in 10 provinces. In addition, the school has contributed wisdom to the formulation of over 100 rural revitalization development plans and design schemes in more than 20 districts and counties in Chongqing... These numbers give us reason to believe that our graduate education can contribute even more to rural revitalization. ”President Wang Jinjun of Southwest University is full of confidence, "We will further leverage our educational advantages and characteristics, continue to strengthen graduate education on the vast rural land, and cultivate more outstanding talents to promote the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas