On April 23, China's e-commerce giant Alibaba launched an initiative called "Live Streaming College for Villagers". The initiative encourages farmers to actively use the tools of mobile phones and live streaming techniques to improve the efficiency of their agricultural work. 

The College was co-launched by Alibaba Group and the Kecheng District Government of Quzhou City. It offers free training courses for farmer anchors all day long.

Chen Jiasheng, a 47-year-old resident in Kecheng district, sold noodles through live streaming. After returning to his hometown in 2010 to start his own business, Chen Jiasheng established his own noodle shop. In July 2019, with the help of Alibaba's "Live Streaming Plan for Villages", he got to know about live streaming for the first time. "When I did my first live streaming, I was very nervous and didn’t know where to look. The second time, the county head joined us and we sold several thousand kilograms of noodles. I am very passionate about live streaming now.” he said. 

Xu Xiaohua is a more experienced and popular anchor in Kecheng district. After graduation, he returned to his hometown to grow fleshy plants. Since 2019, he, together with his wife and sister, has been selling fleshy plants on Taobao live streaming with a monthly sales over 200,000 yuan. 

The "live streaming college for villagers" is a new measure initiated by Alibaba with the purpose of boosting rural areas through the mechanism of e-commerce. It is believed that Alibaba will join hands with all walks of society to provide all-round free support for farmer anchors in terms of infrastructure, training, brand design, as well as the support for sales through live streaming, policy guidance, and resource coordination. 

(Compiled by Ye Ke)