Gao Chaorong knows what it takes to spread good sweet potatoes, peanuts and wheat, but delicious produce isn’t enough to attract Chinese app-savvy crowds.
To prevent her crops from rotting in the fields, the 56-year-old is now back in school and attending a “hands-on-the-life training camp” to learn to bring vegetables directly to consumers through mobile phones.
Gao and her classmates are becoming popular online as “new farmers” in China who use the latest technology in agricultural production or services.
The number of new rural creators has soared 52% over the past year on China’s Tiktok sister app Douyin as they hope to take advantage of the country’s 1 billion internet users, the largest number in the world.
On Xiaohongshu, a Chinese app like Instagram, the hashtag “new farmers” have been observed more than 227 million times.
Local authorities even sent some officials to study live broadcasts and helped farmers access the Internet.
“It’s hard for farmers to sell their agricultural products, especially those offline,” said Chen Xichuan, a Communist cadre in Pingdu, a small Shandong city in Shandong, who was one of the people asked to set an example and help growers trade online.
Chen used his mature green pears holding the mobile phone on the tripod during the outdoors.
“Just watch the juice,” Chen told his audience in a straw hat to protect himself from the fiery sunshine.
“Take home, taste it and make fresh pear juice for your kids,” Chen said.
– “Full Mark” –
As Chinese consumers buy anything from clothes to makeup to garlic online, live streaming has become an important marketing platform for farmers to directly attract and attract customers.
Users can click a button to make a purchase and comment or ask sellers about their products during live broadcasts.
Sisters Tian, live streamers and e-commerce experts organize monthly boot camps, charging about 5,000 yuan ($698) for about four days of intensive courses and “lifelong” follow-up activities.
Students learn how to engage audiences with compelling scripts, props and visually appealing backgrounds.
In the classroom, a dozen students watched as Gao held the sliced eggplant, poured out, almost stopped or stuttered, which was the best way to cook vegetables.
“Remember, when you sell a product, it’s not just remembering your sales script,” said teacher Tian Dongying, scribbling on the whiteboard while reviewing Gao’s simulated live courses.
“You need to know who to talk to,” she said.
Tian established a school of living with two sisters and a cousin, and all her students deserve “full points”.
“They have never done this before, just being able to stand up and talk is already a challenge,” she told AFP.
“Because they want to make this money, they have to go beyond their limits.”
The Supreme Court told AFP that she attended the training camp because farmers liked the fierce competition of her face and “can’t stick to the old-fashioned way of farming anymore.”
She planted crops at the foot of Maling Mountain in Shandong and began posting videos on Douyin, attracting more than 7,000 followers.
– Money-back guarantee –
Dongying’s older sister said China’s agricultural sector is becoming increasingly important because industries such as real estate “are no longer so prosperous” and unemployment is rising.
“Agriculture is becoming the cornerstone of China’s ability to support its population,” she said.
Since taking office in 2012, President Xi Jinping has regarded rural revitalization as a key focus of China’s development.
He also highlighted the crucial role that agriculture plays in China, the world’s highest commodity producer, including rice and wheat.
Xi Jinping said in 2022: “A country must first strengthen agriculture in order to make itself stronger.”
Pan Wang, associate professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia, said digital tools such as live streaming have changed the public’s perception of rural life in China.
“Traditionally, Chinese farmers have been described as work from sunrise to sunset – poor, old-fashioned, out of touch with technology,” Wang told AFP.
But they remain a barrier for farmers when they try to become more tech-savvy.
“Live streaming and video production are new,” said Farmer Gao.
“For young people, clicking on a computer… feels effortless, but we have to study twice as much to learn.”
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