The Central Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School (CABTS) is an educational institution that provides farmers with education and training programs, agricultural technology extension, scientific information, and knowledge delivered in remote teaching or face-to-face modes under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China.
Over the past 42 years, Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School (ABTS) has formed a four-tier organizational structure at the central, provincial, municipal and county tiers and a five-tier education system. It branches can be divided into two types: remote learning institutions for farmers and farmer field schools. By the end of 2021, it had 34 provincial branches, 264 prefecture-level branches, 1,753 county-level branches, and 17,300 farmer field schools based on cooperatives, family farms and agricultural enterprises, with 100,000 full-time and part-time teachers. Every year, it provides training services for more than 500,000 farmers; about 50,000 farmers enroll in its secondary vocational education programs; tens of thousands of students enroll in programs launched by ABTS in collaboration with colleges and universities; and more than 10 million farmers take part in agricultural technical training programs. It is the world’s largest "school without walls" for farmers.
CABTS has abundant teaching resources and all-media teaching methods.
Broadcasting and TV: CABTS is tasked to produce two radio programs (Agriculture Morning News and Lectures on Rural Development) and one TV show (Field Demonstrations) for CCTV-17.
Internet: CABTS has built an online learning platform on the China Rural Distance Education Network, launched nearly 8,000 online courses, getting more than 4 million clicks annually. It also offers training to update knowledge of technical personnel in the agricultural sector. It has organized more than 200 remote training sessions and agricultural lectures, benefiting over 5 million people.
New Media: CABTS is operating a national agricultural education cloud platform. It has developed two applications (Smart Agriculture and Nongguang Online) and opened more than 10 WeChat official accounts such as Nongguang Xintiandi. It has developed a multitude of new media platforms and provided farmers with online learning, technological information and support. Its application Smart Agriculture has more than 6.5 million registered users. This APP provides online learning services for nearly 200,000 students from more than 1,000 training institutions across the country. Hundreds of millions of farmers enroll in mobile applications skills training programs offered by CABTS every year.
Newspapers, Journals and Textbooks: News on Agricultural Education via Radio and Television and Training in Agricultural Technologies are two magazines sponsored by CABTS. CABTS has published more than 500 kinds of textbooks and more than 2,000 kinds of audio-visual educational materials. It has developed more than 15,000 items of audio-visual resources, over which it owns intellectual property rights, and published more than 20 million copies of textbooks.
In the new era, CABTS and its branches at all levels will continue to uphold integrity, make innovations, empower farmers through education and training, promote the country’s agricultural and rural policies, and provide better services for farmers. It will continue to offer education and training resources to farmers and workers in the agricultural sectors to help them comprehensively improve skills and enrich knowledge and thereby contributing to advancing rural revitalization across the board and build up China’s strength in agriculture and harmonious countryside.
