In Wuchuan County, Inner Mongolia, 140,000 out of 170,000 took for the job in agriculture. However, with a heavy sandstorm, barren land locally here is inappropriate for paddy and wheat plant, but they're still live oats and potatoes. After oat is harvested, local people will grind it into powder and then turn it into oat flour, so Wuchuan County is long acknowledged as a hometown of oat flour. Oat flour is in the majority of people’s diet structure in Inner Mongolia, but is not well received in other areas of China, and is relatively hard to be sold to other areas. Local people will turn the rest of oatmeal into fodder with lower EVA (economic value added). It is difficult for Wuchuan County to take off the hat of the impoverished county.
To have Wuchuan County take off the hat of the nationally-level impoverished county, Inner Mongolia Yangufang Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd found USST. The company contacted Prof. Guan Xiao for seeking to plug oats into the wind of science and technology, making oatmeal increase its value and relative oat products.
From the perspective of Prof. Guan Xiao, oat products are not well launched for many reasons, mainly because of inefficiency in intensive and fine processing technology, equipment, and limited types of oat products in the market. In addition, insufficient development of the oat market makes the benefits of oat products unknown to the public.
To help people in Inner Mongolia to develop more types of oat products and have local farmers launch their oats. Prof. Guan Xiao and his team make oat rice out of oats. “Oat flour made of oatmeal is popular in the north, but people in the south get used to rice. The best way to launch oats is to turn it into oat rice,” said Li Sen, a member of his team. “Oats are characterized by external hardness and internal softness. If eaten with the skin, its taste seems bad. However, if ground with the normal machine, its skin is not easy to fall, but easily broken with the hard ground.” To resolve the problems of oatmeal into rice, Prof. Guan Xiao and his team work with some enterprises to research and develop transverse twin eddy current grinding technology and initiate transverse twin-turbine grinder, breaking the limits to the general grinder and make oats grinding well-targeted.
Transverse twin-turbine grinder initiiated by Guan Xiao's team
At the same time, Prof. Guan Xiao and his team analyze oats through the technology of animal experimentation and modern molecular biology to do deep research on the real effects of oats on human bodies. Studies show that an element named β-glucan in the oat is effective in lipid-lowering and weight loss and can improve intestinal flora structure and probiotic function. There is a great amount of β-glucan in the oats skin. To demonstrate its magic power, team research and develop the technology of ultrasound-assisted subcritical extraction. It extracts oatmeal oil from the skin and then ground the skin and turned it into dietary fibre powder. It can also extract β-glucan and oat-active peptide. So not only it helps to solve problems like easy agglomeration and great oiliness of the skin, but also make full use of nutritional materials in the oats skin.
In late years, USST team and such enterprises like Yangufang Co., Ltd work to develop nearly 10 different types of oat products. Most of them have achieved industrialization and their economic value has exceeded 1 billion Yuan in the past 3 years. Yangufang Co., Ltd also moves its corporation to Shanghai. Every graduate of Guan Xiao team will join in the summer practice and investigate the oat quality and system of quality control of food safety. Besides, both sides establish joint factories to develop new types of meal substitutes and energy sticks for special high-blood patients and slim people.
Oats field in Wuchuan County, Inner Mongolia
To relieve USST team, the economic value of oats improves, and it makes farmers in Wu Chuan County perform more actively in planting, and echo the national policy of targeted poverty alleviation. In golden autumn of each year, farmers in Wuchuan County will hold oat culture festival. After oats are harvested, these cars and trucks with different sizes stopped from factory zones to the street. The phenomena of “oat bell rings, white waves cover one thousand hectares” can be seen everywhere.
