Jiangxi farmers take to lectern to become tutors

Wei Qiuxiang, a farmer from East China's Jiangxi province, is passing along her knowledge of innovative agriculture to students from across the province.

Wei, 50, who is from the city of Leping in Jiangxi, has so far given three lectures at Jiangxi Agricultural University's College of Continuing Education.

All of her students－more than 500－are farmers from Jiangxi.

Since 2019, the college has invited 18 farmer tutors to share their knowledge. They represent a new class of professional-grade growers and include the owners of large-scale farms, leaders of cooperatives and managers of agricultural companies.

They have shared their entrepreneurial experience in classrooms and carried out training in the field, delivering practical knowledge on planting, aquaculture and animal husbandry.

"I am a beneficiary of this innovation and reform," Wei said.

In 2013, she began a two-year course on administrative management at Jiangxi Open University in Nanchang, which was part of a project the province promoted beginning in 2011 to train a particular set of students－experienced farmers from rural areas.

As of the end of last year, the province had invested 230 million yuan ($35 million) in training 63,000 farmers willing to lead their rural peers on the road to prosperity.

Wei began by planting pear trees on 3.3 hectares of mountain land in the village of Liantang in Leping in 2001. She had her first harvest with good sales in 2007－a success that attracted other residents in Liantang to follow her lead.

To help more people achieve prosperity, Wei founded a cooperative specializing in planting pear trees in 2009.

"In 2013, I learned more about management, which brought many new ideas to help me transform traditional agriculture and promote a new type of professional farmer," she said.

Her cooperative has been joined by 113 farmers from nearby villages with around 140 hectares of land under cultivation, she said.

In 2018, Wei took part in another course at the university in Nanchang, where she gained more practical knowledge about planting and processing.

"During those three years of horticultural study, I got more opportunities to visit communities with agricultural experts and solved lots of problems in my farm work," she said. "I also signed several cooperation agreements with the college."

Other outstanding farmers, like Wei, have been selected since 2019 as tutors for innovation and entrepreneurship. Together with academic teachers, their lectures to farmer students have expanded, said Zhang Shuifa, deputy Party secretary of the college.

"The first seven farmer tutors we invited in September 2019 were well received because their lectures dealt with agricultural production in depth and catered to the needs of the students," he said. "So we launched a second round of appointments－11 tutors－in March, and are planning courses for students in related agricultural majors across the university."

After taking a seven-day course at the college in September, Wang Yanping from Leping decided to change the planting structure in her orchard and vineyard.

"I had planted kiwi fruit and grapes on 6.7 hectares," she said. "In the training course, I learned that it was easier to manage kiwis, which are less vulnerable to attack from pests and disease. They also have a higher price in the market."

So she swapped her grapes for kiwis.

"Experienced tutors like Wei Qiuxiang gave us a lot of help in terms of planting technology, management and sales, and I hope to attend more such training courses in the future," Wang added.

Liu Xin, a senior student at the college, has made some key life decisions based on the experiences of the farmer tutors.

"I have heard about these tutors, who have had different struggles in rural areas," Liu said. "I have decided to start my business in a rural area after graduation, and I hope to have a chance to learn some more lessons from them."

Randy Wright contributed to this story.