CHANGSHA, March 31 (Xinhua) -- At 7:30 p.m., Yang Yuanzhu, nearly 60 years old, sat in front of a phone and a beauty lamp and started livestreaming using Mandarin with a local accent.
Yang is an agricultural expert and the vice president of Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Co., Ltd. Still, he is also a popular broadcaster that attracts over 100,000 people in one session.
As China's spring farming is in full swing, agricultural companies are sharing their experiences and expertise with farmers to help them use technologies for improving yield and productivity.
Yang is an expert in plant breeding, and each year he goes to the fields for teaching farmers. This year, due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, his lessons moved online.
Zhou Dongdong, a manager with China's machinery equipment maker Zoomlion, also went to the fields to demonstrate how the company's seedling thrower works. A class that was planned to last 40 minutes lasted for over two hours.
"Learning to use, repair and maintain has become new skill requirements for professional farmers today," said Zhou, "As companies, we need to conduct these training well and win more customers."
Zhou's company plans to sell 1,500 such machines. In one training session, he sold 30. The company asked dealers of the machines to conduct training for farmers each year, with each dealer training over 200 people each year.
"We also invite teachers from higher institutions to the training, and the content is not just limited to our own products," he said.
The training also helped farmers get jobs in some small and micro agricultural firms.
Jian Lirong, who leads a company in the city of Yiyang in central China's Hunan Province, said they select some farmers who perform well in training to become formal employees.
"We now have over 20 trainers in the company, and over half of them are former farmers who have participated in our training before," Jian said. "They help promote standardized farming ideas and techniques in local villages."
Jiang Taijun, an officer with the provincial department of agriculture and rural affairs, said such training conducted by enterprises are closer to the actual practice and production process and can help companies improve their products too.
"It also serves as a good supplement to the government training," Jiang added.
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