Why Have Agriculture Students Suddenly Gone Viral? Two Life Samples from Agriculture

When you think of agriculture students, what comes to mind? The best university canteen? Treating coffee as your soup of the day? Or “the machines over there are too loud — keep your voices down” and “No idea, but my strawberries are very graceful”?

Over the past year, agriculture students unexpectedly went viral online. Some came across open-field cultivation through the tomatoes and watermelons they shared; others envied their closeness to the land and nature — “All it takes is getting close to the earth, and one’s heart grows wide.” But when it comes to jobs, the picture changes: “Agriculture is easy to get into but hard to get out of,” or “If you don’t think about employment, the subject is actually quite fascinating.” These, too, are the voices of agriculture students.

Here we are again, entrance-exam and graduation season rolling in. What are agriculture students actually studying today? What do they do? Where do they go after graduation? And what kind of person is suited to studying agriculture? In this episode, we invite Li Yangyang, a lecturer at the Department of Plant Nutrition, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, and Xianzi, a second-year master’s student currently stationed at the Quzhou Science and Technology Backyard, to talk about the imagination and reality of agricultural life.

Between them, they make quite a pair of life stories: one a self-described “ag native” who stumbled into agriculture almost by accident, the other a cross-disciplinary switcher who went from grey-collar to yellow-collar to green-collar. Enduring the stench and the heat to pile up over ninety tonnes of organic fertiliser; sweet-talking a local uncle into driving a water truck for them… Turns out agriculture students do more than till soil — soil, weather, microbes, robots, drones are all fair game in their research.

Welcome to today’s conversation. Whether you’re filling in your university applications or simply curious about the world of agriculture, come and see what life is really like from the inside. And if you’re an agriculture student yourself, working the land day in, day out, we’d love to hear your story in the comments.

Special thanks: Venue support provided by the Da-xiao Dianbo Podcast Space (Maizidian).

G U E S T S

Li Yangyang | Associate Professor at China Agricultural University. Sometimes INTJ, sometimes ENTJ. Crossed from a pure-science degree into engineering, then into agriculture, building a multidisciplinary research perspective. Long-term focus: green and low-carbon directions in the agricultural resource and environmental system.

Yang Ruoxianzi | A 2024 master’s student at China Agricultural University, from Ili, Xinjiang. Main research area: county-level crop–livestock cycling and organic fertiliser functional regulation.

H O S T

Li Ye | A business major who actually wanted to study medicine, agriculture or biology. Applied to the Central Academy of Drama but narrowly missed the cut.

T I M E S T A M P S

03:01 A girl from a small town in Xinjiang — she saved up all her luck to get into China Agricultural University

04:10 From a geography trainee teacher to an agriculture lecturer: good canteen food, too, is part of the life equation.

12:01 At the admissions fair, parents and students are always asking different questions.

16:25 More girls than you’d think? Eight women, over a hundred tonnes of poultry manure — how were the Eight Composting Fairies forged?

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

26:10 “I gnaw every last bit off my own homegrown maize — absolutely clean.”

27:54 On composting and crop–livestock cycling: so much of agriculture is about learning from the land.

32:47 Downpours, muddy fields, racing to meet the farming season — the real growth moments that never make it into a paper.

38:50 What is a Science and Technology Backyard? Before you write a paper in the field, you learn to drive a three-wheeler.

42:45 What should you study at undergrad if you want to join a Science and Technology Backyard for postgrad? And do you need biochemistry to switch fields into agriculture?

44:25 Experiments, tilling, storms and village meetings: a day in the life of an agriculture research student.

51:05 The maize was flooded, so I snapped a photo: one ditch could fit three of me.

57:34 Is agriculture tough? Yes, it is. But the skills you pick up in the fields will, in the end, carry you into a wider world.

65:17 Where do agriculture students end up? On jobs, salaries, and a piece of advice a teacher gives her young people: the margin for error in life is actually enormous — live fully, stay sincere, and stay kind.

A group photo of Teacher Li and Xianzi (left: Li Yangyang; right: Xianzi; centre: Xianzi’s classmate An Nan)

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 agriculture student” — here’s Doubao’s answer

The three-wheeler is practically a lifeline at the Backyard — this one’s already been passed down through eight generations

A day at the Backyard is long and never quite predictable: spreading fertiliser, preparing lab equipment, running farmer training sessions, composting with international students… Every day is like opening a blind box, and you keep finding secret editions

Teacher Li and her students researching fertiliser at the Quzhou Experimental Station — wheelbarrows stacked high behind them

Of course the finished compost goes back to the field. A typical day tending the maize experimental plot — two students running trials, but everyone pitches in (top: furrowing with a tool; bottom: spreading fertiliser into the furrows)

The legendary Eight Composting Fairies, leaning against the subjects of their research — the future is right at their feet!

Life at the Backyard is full of fun.

Xianzi crouching in the washed-out maize experimental plot, pondering the meaning of life.

Xianzi’s two accounts (on WeChat Channels and Douyin) — come and watch an agriculture student’s farming (and going-a-little-mad) daily life

This episode is part of Xiaoyuzhou’s special Gaokao feature. Search the platform for 👉 A Gaokao Application Guide for Everyday Kids 👈 and explore more content in the series.

Published by Foodthink