China's 'new farmers' learn to live-stream in rural revitalisation

Ms Gao Chaorong knows what it takes to turn out good crops of sweet potatoes, peanuts and wheat, but tasty produce is no longer enough to draw China's app-savvy crowd.

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YANTAI, China -

To prevent her crops from rotting unsold in the fields, the 56-year-old is now back in school, attending a "hands-on live-streaming bootcamp" to learn to take her vegetables straight to consumers via their mobile phones.

Ms Gao and her classmates are gunning for online popularity as China's "new farmers" - people who use the latest technology in agricultural production or services.

The number of new rural content creators has soared 52 per cent on China's TikTok sister app Douyin over the past year as they hope to capitalise on the country's one billion internet users, the world's most.

On the Instagram-like Chinese app Xiaohongshu, the hashtag "new farmers" has been viewed more than 227 million times.

Local authorities are even sending some officials to learn how to live-stream and help farmers get online.

"It's been harder for farmers to sell their produce, especially offline," said Mr Chen Xichuan, a Communist Party cadre in the small Shandong city of Pingdu who was among those asked to set an example and help growers take their trade online.

Live in action outdoors, Mr Chen squeezed a ripe green pear he held up to a phone secured on a tripod.

"Just look at the juice," Mr Chen, wearing a straw hat to shield himself from the blazing sun, told his viewers.