On November 21, the Award ceremony of 2009 “SHELL” University Students Energy–Social Research and Survey Program on the New Rural Construction was held in Shanghai. 20 research and survey programs of university students from Beijing and Shanghai won the awards. The research and survey program of “Pig-Biogas-Fruit” eco-agriculture model by Xiao Ling and other students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University won the first prize. And the other first prize winner is the program from Fudan University.

The event was jointly held by Science & Technology Development Center, Ministry of Agriculture, Shanghai Clean Energy Research and Industry Promotion Center and Shell China. The research this year was carried out by focusing on the two key points of rural energy development and Agricultural Energy Saving and Emission Reduction. Altogether nearly 200 university students of Beijing and Shanghai participated.

This year’s research theme covers the biogas application, comprehensive utilization of the crops straw, solar energy, micro hydropower, energy-saving and emission reduction technology, bio-diesel and photovoltaic lighting, etc. The university students go down to the rural area in the summer holiday, survey the status quo and problems of energy use, and use their expertise to put forward solutions.

Finally, after the evaluation of the jury composed by experts at energy, environment and economics, the research and survey programs from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Tongji University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, etc. won the awards and the prize money. Their programs have been compiled into a volume and presented to the relevant government departments and research institutions as research reference.

Li Jingming from Science & Technology Development Center, Ministry of Agriculture said: “The energy problems in rural areas are closely bound up to the farmers’ production and life. Young students carry out in-depth practice to understand and study this important livelihood issue of people, and put forward original proposals and new solutions. This is a good way to serve our country with the knowledge. The winning research and survey program of SJTU is named “The Eco-agriculture Construction of Yongxin County, Jiangxi Province–Research and Improvement of the Status Quo of the ‘Pig-Biogas-Fruit’ Model”. The program has established the mathematical modeling for the local “Pig-Biogas-Fruit” Model based on the survey data and optimized the resource allocation by taking both the environmental and economic aspects into consideration. The research team consists of five people, besides Xiao Ling, Fang Caoming and other two students from SJTU, still one from University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. It is worth mentioning that in the event held last year, the Student team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University also received the first prize for their research program with the name of “Development and Utilization of Clean Energy in Highland Areas”.