On April 6th, Agricultural Machinery Science and Technology Award Ceremony 2020 was held successfully in Zhumadian, Henan, China. The research paper titled Research and Application on the Key Technology of Multi Working Condition Sprinkler Irrigation Equipment with High Efficiency by Prof. Shouqi Yuan’s team won the first prize of 2020 Agricultural Machinery Science and Technology Award.

Prof. Shouqi Yuan has led the team in the innovation and enhancement of agricultural water-saving irrigation equipment in China, making significant contributions to the effective and efficient utilization of water resources, drought resistance, disaster relief and food security in China. Relying on China’s National Research Center of Pumps (NRCP) and supported by the national 863 program and other projects, the award-winning achievement seeks to solve urgent industrial problems such as low applicability, poor matching capability and low irrigation efficiency of current irrigation equipment in China. After a decade of systematic and comprehensive research, the research team has invented the following: three kinds of high-efficiency multi working condition sprinkler irrigation units, three kinds of low-pressure uniform sprinkler heads and a set of high-efficiency solar energy irrigation system which form the design system of sprinkler irrigation equipment with high efficiency and multi working conditions.

The performance of these technologies is internationally advanced with 36 patents authorized, including 4 US patents. These research achievements have been widely utilized in water-saving irrigation industry, playing a substantial role in green agriculture, energy conservation and emission reduction, and precision irrigation. The total demonstration area is up to more than 900 thousand mus (1 mu equals to 0.0667 hectares) and the invented technologies have realized the renewal of irrigation equipment in China.