Chenzhou, a city in Hunan Province, has helped more than 3,000 farmers realise their dream of attending university.

They are like the golden seeds sown in spring, laden with hope that fills the vast land.

In October 2015, the rural college-student plan was initiated, with enrolment organised by the Chenzhou Radio and TV University (RTVU). To this point, a total of 3,693 farmers have enrolled, 867 of them in 2015, the highest number in the province; 1,189 in 2016, ranking second; and 1,637 in 2017, ranking first.

Farmers have stated that this plan has benefited both them and the countryside as a whole, making it easier to train and retain rural talent.

Farmer students have become popular in the struggle for rural revitalisation.

According to a member of the Organisation Department of the Chenzhou City CPC Committee, “Talented people with ideas, skills and the will to get things done are needed for rural development and revitalisation. The plan offers a solution to the problem of finding and keeping rural talent”.

Recently, Chenzhou RTVU teachers investigated the implementation of the plan in Huailin Village, part of the Zhaiqian Township of Guidong County. The local village cadres had complained to them that the enrolment quota did not match the large number of villagers applying.

According to President Yuan Jinwu of the Linwu County Vocational Secondary School, when recruitment for the 2015 spring semester started, only 43 students applied, 9 of whom dropped out later. However, things are quite different now, and everyone is struggling to find a spot in the school.

The change from “a deserted courtyard with few applicants” to “a market crowded with applicants” is due to the benefits rural college students realise they can get from the programme: learning, skills, and ability to reciprocate villagers’ kindness to them.

What is needed in rural areas? What do farmers want to learn, and what should be taught? Chenzhou RTVU has been able to meet the real needs of farmers for practical instruction that is relevant to their lives.

A snail climbs inch by inch, and each inch represents a breakthrough. An eagle flies mile after mile, and each mile represents an endeavour.

Hu Jige, a college student from Shenjingping Village, part of the Shunfeng Township of Linwu County, told a reporter that farmers couldn’t do anything to help with rural revitalisation without learning. He went to Beijing as a migrant worker after junior middle school. In 2015, he returned home, determined to carve out a career there, and enrolled as an Administration major for rural college students at the Linwu RTVU. He has learned a great deal, and expanded his horizons. Furthermore, he has started a “yuezi chicken” (chicken for women confined after giving birth) breeding project, and is now the leader of dozens of village households raising over 10,000 such chickens.

Of the 341 rural college students in Guidong County, 216 are primary-level Party cadres, including 59 branch secretaries and heads of village committees, and 47 reserve cadres. In the recruitment of the ``three kinds of people”(student officials, village cadres, and government officials), Li Shouzhong and three other students were promoted from village cadre to deputy township director by doing well on the examinations.

According to Zhou Jiancheng, vice head of the Department of Organisation of the CPC Guidong Committee, farmer university students have become popular because a number of them have had an edge in the selection of rural primary-level cadres, or gained economic opportunities through the development of the rural economy, or accomplished their goals through the civil-servant recruitment examinations.

Rural college students have become the main force for rural revitalisation.

After a spring rain, the Paris polyphylla planted by Chen Zujin, an old man from a low-income household in Hankou Village in Lujiang Town, part of the Oujiang Township of Guidong County, grew even taller, giving him hope of a solid profit, and making him grateful to rural college student Li Fuzhen.

The Paris polyphylla is Chen Zujin’s “flower of prosperity”. With the help of Li Fuzhen three years earlier, the 73-year-old Li planted the flower on his 467 square meters of land, and soon expects to generate an income of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan from it.

Guidong is the region where the battle against poverty is most intense in Chenzhou, and Li Fuzhen has gained a reputation as “a flower of prosperity”.

A native of Hankou Village, part of the Oujiang Township of Guidong County, Li Fuzhen is chair of the board of Guidong Zhenyuan Modern Agriculture Development. As a farmer university student, she has gained not only learning but also a sense of her responsibilities. At present, she has developed 1390 mu (about 92.67 hectares) for growing rare medicinal herbs, and led nearly 400 low-income households toward prosperity by planting traditional Chinese medicinal herbs.

To Party Branch Secretary Peng Huxiong of Yizhang RTVU, rural college students are permanent poverty-alleviation work teams.

Duan Faxi, the accountant of the Village Committee and a rural college student from Luozhen Village, part of Tiantang Township in Yizhang County, was born in the 1980s. When he saw that the land in his hometown was being abandoned, he used the savings he had gained from his years of migrant work to purchase more than 260 mu (about 17.33 hectares) of dry land, on which he planted “Yinghong No. 9 Black Tea”, creating jobs for more than one hundred villagers, including nearly 40 categorised as low-income. Over the last two years, he has paid more than 800,000 yuan in rent and wages.

He says, “The rural college-student plan has made my dream of attending university come true. Now I would like to lead more villages toward prosperity”.

Rural revitalisation requires rural talents “who can remain and accomplish what they want to do”.

Chen Feng, a cadre in Dingshang Village and member of the Baohe Yao Ethnic Group of Beihu District, was lucky enough to have become a farmer university student. By way of “platform learning + work practice + exchanges and summaries”, he has helped strengthen the village and enrich the farmers through agriculture. Now the Grape Farmer Professional Cooperative of Dingshang Village has been selected as a provincial-demonstration cooperative for its annual yield of around 700,000 jin (350,000 kilogrammes) of grapes with sales of about 4 million yuan. About 500 mu (33.33 hectares) of Camellia Oleifera have been developed, and nearly 300 mu (20 hectares) of winter cabbage planted. A charming spring “lake and mountain landscape full of flowers” has been created, and the development of rural tourism promoted.

With the help of the rural college-student plan, rural college students dedicated to serving the people and fulfilling their responsibilities have become powerful engines of primary-level Party building in rural areas.

Zhou Caiwang, secretary of the Zhoujia Village General Party Branch in Bianjiang Township, Yongxing County, is a 2016 spring-semester undergraduate of Economic Management at Yongxing RTVU. As a Party secretary and farmer student, he has been in the vanguard of Party members, working heart and soul for the development of the village and enrichment of its residents. Now, under his leadership, three collectives have been set up, and over 30 people with training in business are employed by them.

“With the implementation of the farmer university-student plan, rural Party organisations have gained cadres with skills and learning who intend to remain and be available. The Party’s power to unite and its energy to fight have all been strengthened in the primary-level Party organisations.

By La Liping, Chen Hongjun, Chen Changchun, and Luo Jiwen of Chenzhou RTVU, Hunan Province, OUC