From August 12 to 14, the first Rural Revitalization Talent Training Session of 2026 in Dafeng District, Yancheng City, was successfully held. A total of 48 key rural revitalization personnel from 15 towns, districts, and sub-districts completed an immersive three-day, two-night program combining theoretical study and field research, with six participants receiving the Outstanding Trainee award.
The trainees gained practical insights and brought back a range of new development ideas tailored to local conditions. Jing Huaiyu, a trainee from Caoyan Town who previously focused on agricultural production but lacked market operation experience, plans to pilot a "three crops per year" planting model in his village after field research in Shanghai, aiming to lead surrounding farmers in jointly exploring the market. Wang Ziyi, a trainee from Wanying Town, drew inspiration from Shanghai's agricultural product traceability system and order-based common prosperity model, intending to strengthen product quality controls in local specialty industries, connect with Shanghai market orders, and boost income for disadvantaged groups. Chen Ying, a trainee from Fenghua Sub-district, identified the local weakness in agricultural product grading and sorting, and plans to lead the construction of a product grading and selection center to open up external sales channels and secure premium prices for quality goods.
In recent years, the Dafeng District Party Committee and District Government, in collaboration with the Shanghai Farm stationed in Dafeng, have intensively advanced the rural revitalization strategy, building a distinctive brand for talent training in this field. The initiative aims to cultivate 100 high-caliber agricultural professionals annually. This session broke away from the traditional classroom-plus-observation model, innovatively incorporating field research in Shanghai, experience sharing, group discussions, and implementation planning to help trainees broaden their perspectives and refresh their development concepts.
The participants this time were characterized by their youth, higher education levels, and diversity. The average age was 31, with 72% under 35 and over 90% holding a college degree or above. The group included village-level cadres, farmer brokers, large-scale planting and breeding households, veterans, and college graduates returning to start businesses, covering areas such as high-quality rice and wheat, fruit and vegetable planting, livestock and poultry farming, specialty crops, e-commerce livestreaming, and agricultural product processing, all with a solid foundation in grassroots practice.
The curriculum featured multiple innovations closely aligned with industry frontiers. Practical courses included "6+N" income growth models, three-crops-per-year planting, modern agricultural industrialization, and agricultural artificial intelligence. Classrooms were moved to the front lines of Shanghai's agricultural production. Trainees visited the Shanghai Xijiao International Agricultural Product Trading Center to learn about product circulation, supply assurance, and consumption-based support models. They also toured local Shanghai cooperatives to observe standardized planting and breeding, order agriculture, and leisure agriculture operations, and visited Donghe Jiugo Happy Farm to study whole-industry-chain rice development and integrated approaches to agriculture, culture, and tourism.
The teaching framework established a complete "learning-thinking-applying" loop, employing a five-in-one model of lectures, field observations, group discussions, experience exchanges, and follow-up visits to ensure practical results. Local experts and seasoned practitioners took the stage, with planting specialists explaining efficient cultivation techniques and enterprise technicians sharing insights on specialty breeding and cooperative farming, effectively translating professional agronomy into accessible, actionable methods.
The training combined classroom instruction with field guidance, focusing on cultivating brand awareness, market thinking, and e-commerce operational skills, pushing traditional agricultural practitioners to transform from mere producers into a new generation of farmers skilled in management, operations, and marketing.
At the final presentations, trainees outlined more than 20 concrete measures, including building product traceability systems, promoting efficient multi-cropping, and developing order-based agriculture, resulting in individual implementation plans. Satisfaction rates exceeded 98%, with participants reporting significant improvements in their development thinking and work capabilities.
Moving forward, the Dafeng District Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, together with the Shanghai Farm stationed in Dafeng, will establish long-term communication channels between trainees and experts, implement follow-up and tracking mechanisms, and continuously refine the talent cultivation model. The goal is to create a model for rural revitalization talent development in Dafeng and lay a solid foundation for comprehensively advancing rural revitalization.