In the rice fields of Huangchuan County, Xinyang City, Henan Province, Wei Dong, a post-90s leader of an agricultural cooperative, piloted a drone over the ridges to precisely spread fertilizer. Since mastering drone technology, work that once required two people two days to complete now takes just one hour. Across Henan, more young people like Wei Dong are undergoing similar transformations. Since 2021, the Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League, in collaboration with the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, has been advancing the training of high-quality young farmers. Groups of young returnees and leaders of new agricultural business entities are entering classrooms, bringing new ideas and technologies back to the fields, becoming a vital force on the front lines of rural revitalization.

Broadening Horizons Opens New Possibilities

For many young people returning to start businesses in their hometowns, a limited perspective is a key bottleneck. Qin Huixing, a native of Xinyang, returned to start his business in 2014. He began by selling local specialty products on Taobao, and by 2021, his company’s annual sales had reached 23 million yuan. However, as his company grew, he felt increasingly powerless. "Our operations were not standardized, product variety was limited, added value was low, and profits were thin," he said. In 2021, through the local Communist Youth League committee, he learned about the farmer training program launched by the Henan Provincial Committee, which offered free courses for entrepreneurs. Qin Huixing signed up without hesitation. The courses were practical and highly targeted, covering topics such as the operation and management of new agricultural business entities, and improving product quality through standardized production. Instructors taught students step-by-step how to register trademarks, build their own brands, and add higher value to agricultural and sideline products. "Before, I only knew how to buy and sell goods for a small margin, but I never thought about creating my own brand," Qin Huixing said. The course inspired him greatly. Upon returning, he took immediate action: he applied for his own dried noodles to be recognized as a national famous, special, and new agricultural product, registered the "Liao Yuan" trademark, built his own factory, and expanded into multiple product lines such as cured meats and herbal teas, transitioning from "simply selling goods" to "building a brand." After several years of continuous development, his company has become a leading agricultural industrialization enterprise in Xinyang City.

A similar transformation occurred with Wang Xueting, a post-90s beekeeper. The beekeeping cooperative she took over was large in scale but faced persistent sales challenges. In 2024, she attended a specialized training class for high-quality young farmers focusing on local cultural talents, held in Yuzhou City. Yuzhou is a hub for traditional Chinese medicine, and there she realized the deep connection between honey and traditional Chinese medicine, making pharmaceutical factories a ready-made sales channel. After the training, she proactively expanded her client base among pharmaceutical companies, with orders from newly connected factories in 2025 accounting for nearly 20% of her total sales. Beyond imparting knowledge, the training provided a platform for like-minded young people to spark ideas. "Many of my classmates at the training were involved in intangible cultural heritage projects. It suddenly struck me that our beekeeping techniques are also a form of intangible cultural heritage," Wang Xueting said. Inspired by this, she began the process of applying for Xingyang City’s intangible cultural heritage status and collaborated with other heritage projects to develop a "bee-tourism" integrated study program. "Previously, I only sold honey. Now, I’m selling culture and experiences. This year, many schools and organizations have already come for study tours and team-building activities," Wang Xueting noted. The training taught her to infuse her products with cultural significance, making them more valuable.

To ensure the training precisely addresses the "developmental pain points" of these young people, staff from the Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League conduct in-depth research in various cities and counties before each training session begins. They assess the current state of industrial development and the needs of young practitioners, inviting experts from agricultural academies, university professors, and industry leaders for discussions and seminars to jointly develop the curriculum. This ensures that "what is taught is urgently needed by the industry, and what is learned is what the youth want to hear."

Technology Empowerment: Finding the Right Focus

"We need to help young people find their foothold in rural areas, so they can engage more energetically in rural construction," said a staff member from the Youth Development Center of the Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League. Modern agriculture is far from the traditional image of "facing the soil and back to the sky." Drones, smartphones, and other tools have become "new farming implements." Based on this, the Henan Provincial Committee designed courses covering short video platform algorithm analysis, live-streaming sales operations, digital agriculture and the Internet of Things, and agricultural drones. "Before the training, I always thought drone fertilizing and pesticide spraying were out of reach for ordinary farmers, and I worried the results wouldn't be as good as manual work," said Wei Dong, a grassroots agricultural technician and head of a planting cooperative in Huangchuan County. His cooperative manages over 300 mu of land, where all fertilizing and spraying were done manually, leading to high costs and potential delays due to labor shortages. The drone training included practical operation and qualification exams, and Wei Dong successfully obtained his license during the 15-day course. After returning to his hometown, the cooperative pooled funds to purchase a drone. "On the first day, we used it to spray pesticides on a 30-mu seedling field. The seedlings were taller than a person. It would have taken two workers an entire day, but the drone finished in under an hour," Wei Dong said. He added that the drone is not only cheaper but also more effective. Manual spraying often results in uneven application, whereas drones can precisely set the dosage per mu, ensuring even distribution, and the wind pressure helps the pesticide penetrate the entire plant.

Guo Shuang, a native of Nanyang, Henan, works in the e-commerce industry. The e-commerce training course he attended in 2023 gave him "a completely new understanding of agriculture and selling agricultural products through live-streaming." After returning to his hometown, he decided to focus on live-streaming to sell agricultural products. The start was difficult, with only two or three people in his live-stream room, but he wasn't afraid to fail. "Initially, I took a broad approach to building my account. If traffic was bad, I would just start over," Guo Shuang said. The turning point came during a sales crisis. A farmer had nearly 6 mu of huangxin cabbage that couldn't be sold. Guo Shuang moved his live-stream from indoors to the fields, picking and promoting the vegetables live with intern university students, ultimately achieving significant sales. This experience was a revelation. "Now, I use this live-streaming method in the fields for all local produce, not just huangxin cabbage, but also peanuts, sweet potatoes, greens, potatoes, and carrots."

The Training's Lasting Impact

The training's empowering effect is not limited to the individual participants. Almost all of these young people have done one thing upon returning home: they have mobilized those around them. "We now use a support and cooperation model, distributing free chicks to farmers. After the farmers raise them, we buy back the mature poultry at a price higher than the market rate," Qin Huixing said. His company now helps over 2,000 households increase their income, with each household earning an additional 10,000 yuan per year. Guo Shuang’s e-commerce incubation base was established this year. He plans to use this base to teach village cadres and local entrepreneurs how to do live-streaming for free. "I have accumulated some experience and resources through my own e-commerce work, and I hope to serve farmers and entrepreneurs in my town, the Wancheng District, and even the entire Nanyang City," Guo Shuang said. To date, he has helped over 170 farming households increase their income and incubated dozens of local live-streamers.

Wei Dong’s cooperative has now operated over 4,000 mu of land, not only completing the fertilizing and spraying for their own cooperative but also taking orders from nearby farmers at prices far below the cost of manual labor. Wei Dong is also preparing to establish a professional aerial pest control service team, recruiting local freelance drone operators to integrate resources for unified operations. The training chain does not break after each session ends. The Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League has explored establishing an "training + service + incubation" integrated development mechanism. After the training ends, they provide entrepreneurial mentors and pairing services for participants who need them, recommending outstanding young live-streamers to participate in the "Qingyun China" live-streaming agricultural assistance activities and recommending excellent rural entrepreneurs to participate in entrepreneurship and innovation competitions.

The Henan Provincial Committee is also focusing on beautiful rural construction and rural cultural heritage, offering courses on figurine-making and Hanfu (traditional Han Chinese clothing). These courses cover an overview of Central Plains culture and the development of cultural and creative intellectual property, the exploration of Central Plains cultural symbols and the generation of digital models using AIGC, and the modern inheritance and industrial research of Hanfu and intangible cultural heritage. In 2023, Li Haili returned to her hometown to start a business, opening a Hanfu styling shop in Luoyang. Before attending the Hanfu training course, her shop mostly offered trendy, internet-famous styles. "The teachers didn't just teach us makeup techniques. They also shared many historical stories and showed us many pictures, explaining the appropriate makeup and clothing characteristics for each dynasty," Li Haili said. After the training, her shop developed new styles that are more historically accurate, recommending them to customers based on their preferences. "Some intangible cultural heritage projects face the awkward situation of having no successors. Rural areas need people to take over, but government protection alone is not enough. We hope more people will learn about and engage with intangible cultural heritage. Only by combining heritage preservation with economic development, leveraging its unique characteristics, can it generate a continuous, self-sustaining momentum," said a relevant official from the Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League.