Experienced fruit growers offer paid lessons to impart agricultural knowledge

Farmers familiar with cultivating fruit trees are offering paid lessons on short-video platforms to help attract young farmers engage in the business and pass on their knowledge to more fruit growers.

In October 2019, Chen Houwu, an apple grower in Xuzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, gave his first lesson on pruning apple trees in a live stream. The lesson lasted 74 minutes and each viewer was charged 99 yuan ($14.41) to watch it.

"I shared my experience in growing and managing apple trees that I accumulated over the past nearly 20 years with my viewers during the lessons," said Chen, adding that nearly 16,000 people have paid to watch his lessons on pruning apple trees.

Chen Houwu shares his knowledge in pruning fruit trees. (yangtse.com/courtesy of the interviewee)

Chen has offered classes in six categories, receiving more than 30,000 orders, which makes him the fruit grower whose lessons are most sold on the platform.

"There is no secret to my success. What I've been doing is to constantly improving my skills, and learning new techniques," Chen said.

"Viewers who buy my lessons can watch the videos over and over again," said Chen.

The man said after watching his lessons, several fruit growers are able to grow apples sold at a higher price, thus managing to gain more wealth before others do.

49-year-old Pan Xiaoping, an apple grower from Yan'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, runs an apple orchard that covers around 50 mu (3.33 hectares).

He has been offering paid lessons on apple cultivation on a short-video platform for nearly two years.

"I do this because the platform encourages creators to make paid content, and also because many fruit farmers need to systematically learn about orchard management," Pan noted.

Pan Xiaoping shares his knowledge in the cultivation of fruit trees. (yangtse.com/courtesy of the interviewee)

Pan offers lessons in six categories, and his lessons on new methods of planting and pruning of apple trees have been bought by 1,700 viewers.

Pan, who doesn't know how to edit videos, records videos with his cellphone and then hires professionals to edit them.

After finding out that elderly fruit growers not familiar with short videos didn't know how to watch his lessons, Pan invited them to a group chat and provided after-sales services and guidance to them.

"The lessons that I offer have generated about 1 million yuan for me, which accounts for nearly half of my total earnings," said Pan.

"The major force behind the fruit growing business will be young people who are comparatively better educated. I must use more accurate and scientific data to help young growers engage in fruit cultivation in a more professional manner. As long as they earn from apple cultivation, they'll have more enthusiasm for the business," said Pan.

After graduating from college in 2014, a woman surnamed Lyu returned to her hometown to manage nearly 50 mu of a fruit orchard owned by her family in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province.

A woman surnamed Lyu shares her knowledge in the cultivation of fruit trees. (yangtse.com/courtesy of the interviewee)

"I learned about fruit cultivation in college and by applying the knowledge in managing the fruit orchard, I've accumulated some experience in cultivating and managing fruit trees," she said.

The woman opened her account on a short-video platform in 2018. So far, she has released over 1,000 videos on fruit tree management and attracted 420,000 followers.

Lyu charges just 9 yuan for each lesson. She said, "I don't want to charge a higher price because I know farmers don't earn money easily. If the price is too high, they may be less willing to learn."