Why Ag Students Suddenly Went Viral? Two Ag People’s Life Templates

What comes to mind when you think of an ag student? The best canteen in the university? Sipping coffee instead of the soup of the day? Or “The machine over there’s too loud, could you keep it down?” / “I don’t know, but my strawberries are absolutely exquisite”?

Over the past year, ag students have unexpectedly gone viral online. Some discovered open-field crop cultivation through tomatoes and watermelons shared by ag students; others envy their closeness to the land and nature – “Once you get close to the earth, your heart grows wide.” But ask about employment and the picture changes: “Ag is easy to get into, hard to get out of” / “If you don’t think about a job, this major is actually quite interesting” – these, too, are what ag students really feel.

It is another college entrance exam season and graduation season. What are today’s ag students actually studying? Doing? Where do they end up after graduation? And what kind of person suits agriculture? In this episode, we have invited Li Yangyang, a lecturer in the Department of Plant Nutrition at the College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, and Xianzi, a second-year postgraduate currently stationed at the Quzhou Science and Technology Station, to chat about the imaginings and realities of studying agriculture.

The two happen to be very different life templates: one is a self-declared “ag native” who stumbled into agricultural university by accident; the other is a cross-exam candidate who went from grey collar to yellow collar to green collar. Piling up over 90 tonnes of organic fertiliser through stench and sweltering heat, sweet-talking and coaxing village uncles into letting them use the water tanker … turns out ag students don’t just grow crops – soil, meteorology, microbiology, robots, drones are all part of their research.

Welcome to this episode. If you are filling in your college applications, or simply curious about agriculture, come and see what the people in the field are experiencing. If you are also an ag student working the land, come and share your story in the comments~

Special thanks this episode: Thank you to Daxiao Dianbo Podcast Space (Maizidian) for providing the venue.

This Episode’s Guests

Li Yangyang | Associate Professor at China Agricultural University. Sometimes INTJ, sometimes ENTJ. Crossed from science to engineering to agriculture, with a multi-disciplinary research perspective, long focused on green and low-carbon directions in agricultural resource and environmental systems.

Yang Ruoxianzi | 2024 postgraduate at China Agricultural University, from Yili, Xinjiang. Mainly researches county-level integrated crop-livestock systems and the functional regulation of organic fertiliser.

This Episode’s Host

Li Ye | A business student who wanted to study medicine and agricultural biology; applied to the Central Academy of Drama and was unfortunately rejected.

Timeline

03:01 A small-town girl from Xinjiang who saved up all her luck to get into ag uni

04:10 From geography teacher-trainee to agriculture teacher: a great canteen is part of the life choice, too.

12:01 At the recruitment fair, parents and students always ask different questions.

16:25 Are there actually more women in agriculture? Eight girls, over a hundred tonnes of chicken manure – how were the Eight Composting Fairies made?

22:32 Plant breeding, plant protection, AI, smart agriculture – today’s ag students study far more than just growing crops.

26:10 “I absolutely nibble my own corn clean”

27:54 On composting and crop-livestock cycling: agriculture is often about learning from the land.

32:47 Downpours, muddy fields, racing the weather – real growth moments beyond the research papers.

38:50 What is a Science and Technology Station? Before writing your papers on the land, you first learn to drive a three-wheeler.

42:45 What do you need to study at undergraduate level to apply for a Science and Technology Station postgraduate programme? Do you need biochemistry to cross-exam into agriculture?

44:25 Experiments, farming, downpours and village meetings: a day in the life of an ag postgraduate.

51:05 My corn got flooded and I took a photo: a single hole big enough to fit three of me

57:34 Is studying agriculture hard? Yes. But the skills you learn in the fields will ultimately take you to a wider world.

65:17 Where do ag students end up? On employment, pay, and a teacher’s advice for young people: life actually has a high tolerance for mistakes – live to the full, stay sincere and kind.

Photo of Teacher Li and Xianzi (left: Li Yangyang, right: Xianzi, middle: Xianzi’s classmate An Nan)

From grey collar to yellow collar to green collar – what did Teacher Li get right? Give it a try yourself!

“Please generate a portrait of an ag student” – this is what Doubao came up with

The three-wheeler is a “life-saving essential” at the station – it is already on its eighth generation

A day at the station is long – spreading fertiliser, prepping lab equipment, running farmer training, leading international students through composting … every day’s like opening a blind box, and there is always a hidden one waiting

Teacher Li and students researching fertiliser at the Quzhou Experimental Station, wheelbarrows piled high behind them

Well-made fertiliser of course gets returned to the field. Daily life in the corn trial plot – everyone chips in to help with two students’ experiments (top: digging furrows with tools, bottom: spreading fertiliser into the furrows)

The legendary Eight Composting Fairies, backed by their research project – the future is right under their feet!

Station life is full of joy.

Xianzi crouching in her flood-destroyed corn trial plot, contemplating life.

Xianzi’s two accounts (Video Account and Douyin) – come and watch an ag student’s daily farming (chaos)

This episode was invited by Xiaoyuzhou’s Gaokao Special Project. Search the app for 👉 A Guide to College Applications for Ordinary Kids 👈 to listen to more from the project.

Published by Foodthink