1、1DELIVERING TECHNICAL TRAINING TO FARMERS THROUGH LOUDERSPEAKERS IN RURAL AREASTIAN XIUJUANHebei Provincial Agricultural Broadcast and Television School, Hebei, CAbstract: Since the 80s of the last century, China has been using radio, television, the Internet, satellite and various technological mea
2、ns to broadly undertake distance education and training to farmers, to popularize agricultural knowledge, extend agricultural technology and disseminate agricultural policies, laws and regulations. In rural areas of Hebei Province in China, almost all villages have been equipped with cabled loudspea
3、kers. Using such a channel to deliver training and disseminate agricultural technologies has the characteristics of simplicity, high speed and convenience, and it is easy to operate; meanwhile it is cost effective with very limited investment. It is an important means of delivering training to farme
4、rs in areas with low popularity of TV and remote areas with low coverage of TV programs in particular. This article mainly introduced the practices of Hebei Provincial Agricultural Broadcast and Television School in fully taping the resource advantages of China Central Agricultural Broadcast and Tel
5、evision School (CABTS) and the school running experiences accumulated by the school itself to use loudspeakers in rural areas to deliver training in science and technology to farmers in association with the actual situation of rural areas of the province and the needs for education of farmers. Hebei
6、 Provincial School actively explored and combined traditional and modern media (Internet and MP3), which achieved very good results. As a successful example, the CABTS is now implementing trials of the program of extending “loudspeakers of science and technology to rural households” in the country.
7、I. Background of proposing the use of loudspeakers in rural areas to carry out farmers science and technology training1. Ways through which rural China receives agricultural knowledge and technologyChina is a big agricultural country with large farming population. In recent years, the governments at
8、 various levels in China attach great importance to rural areas, agriculture and farmers. In order to uplift the overall science, technology and education level of farmers, 2radio and TV stations from the central and provincial levels have established various agricultural programs one after another,
9、 which to a great extent have promoted agricultural production and rural economic development. However, since rural China covers extensive areas with diversified topography, many places in the country could not receive such radio and TV programs. In addition, many farmers in rural China lack conscio
10、usness about learning and using science and technologies on their own initiatives. Knowledge popularization through radio and television stations can only be feasible under the preconditions that farmers have the time to follow the programs and farmers have the wise selection among the large choices
11、 of entertainment programs. Of course, governments at various levels have organized agricultural expert teams and timely delivered technical training and advices to farmers in rural areas. But when facing millions of households in 700,000 villages in the country, it is difficult to have sufficient c
12、overage through such a delivery modality. Therefore, in order to realize the overall improvement of the quality of hundreds of millions of farmers, it is far from sufficient to rely on face-to-face training; furthermore, face-to-face instruction requires substantial investment in human, finance and
13、materials. Therefore, it is necessary to establish farmers training mechanism of multiple channels and modalities so as to carry out agricultural knowledge popularization, agricultural technological extension and dissemination of agricultural policies to farmers. The media of broadcast can break up
14、the restraints of time and space, voice can reach farmers before a physical person can, so we propose to use loudspeakers to undertake science and technology broadcast in communities. 2. Popularization of loudspeakers in rural areasCable loudspeakers are installed in almost of all villages in rural
15、China, furthermore, the number and distribution of loudspeakers in each village are determined by the population size as well as the terrain of the village, which are in conformity with the features of dispersed residence and extensiveness of rural areas. Once the loudspeaker is on, echoes of voices
16、 are all over the village and information can immediately reach all households. Loudspeakers are propaganda tools used by the Party and the government to disseminate state policies and stimulate the masses to work hard under the conditions of backward rural economy in the 60s of the last century. Af
17、ter the implementation of household responsibility system linking output with income in rural areas, loudspeakers became the mouth piece of the government to urge farmers to submit grains, fees and tax. By now, along with the gradual popularization and development of television, telephone and the In
18、ternet in rural areas, the functions of loudspeakers have gradually faded away and loudspeakers have vanished from farmers memories, but stayed silently on the tree trunks or on poles. CABTS started to use broadcast media to deliver agricultural education in July 1981. The media of broadcast is not
19、only a means, but more importantly an approach of popularizing training. In order to fully use the resource advantage of loudspeakers in rural areas, we proposed to use loudspeakers to disseminate science and technology to farmers and provide information for prosperity. 3. Functions and advantages o
20、f Agricultural Broadcast and Television School in ChinaThe principal function of agricultural broadcast and television school is to deliver education and training to farmers through radio and television. With many years efforts, CABTS has 3established rather complete school running systems with five
21、-level management institutions at the central, provincial, municipal, county and township levels. It boosts modern audio production equipment. The central school and most of provincial schools have established cooperation ties with radio and television stations at the corresponding levels to offer v
22、arious types of agricultural technology programs, and have accumulated a large quantity of audio program resources in agricultural science and technologies. Along with the ever-developing of new technologies and research results in agriculture, the program resources are also been enriched and update
23、d. If such resources are disseminated selectively and purposely to rural areas through the CABTS system and broadcasted through loudspeakers, it can achieve double results with only half effort. Therefore, we propose the idea of using loudspeakers in rural areas to popularize knowledge and deliver t
24、echnical training to farmers. II. Feasibility of using loudspeakers in rural areas to carry out training in science and technology to farmers1. High attention given by governmental departments at various levelsIn recent years, along with the increasing concern of the government departments about agr
25、iculture, farmers and rural areas, more and more attention is also given to issues pertaining to farmers learning and using of agricultural sciences and technologies. Governments at various levels have adopted various modalities to disseminate knowledge and technology to farmers. Therefore, on the b
26、asis of fully investigations and studies in early 2002, CABTS selected 50 villages in Hebei Province that have good facilities and in which farmers are enthusiastic and established agricultural science and technology broadcast stations, which broadcast programs of CABTS via loudspeakers, that are su
27、itable to local situations. The deed quickly caught the attention of government departments at various levels and was welcomed by farmers. Therefore, many villages actively submitted application to CABTS for the establishment of broadcast stations for science and technologies. By far, over 2,000 vil
28、lages in 105 counties in Hebei Province have completed the setup of the loudspeaker stations. Some local governments even mobilized their own local financial resources to prepare articles for broadcasting, and a number of broadcast programs with high accuracy of targeting have been produced. Through
29、 exploration and practices of over 3 years, “science and technology loudspeaker” is not only a window for CABTS to directly serve farmers, but also become a link and bridge for communication between government departments and farmers. Through loudspeakers, it not only disseminates agricultural knowl
30、edge and technologies to farmers, but also agricultural policies of the state. Policies concerning farmers and rural areas are also broadcasted to farmers. It informs farmers what the government wishes to and wants to do. The system improved farmers consciousness about the politics and strengthened
31、spiritual civilization development in rural areas. 2. Farmers are anxious to get knowledge and need to have techniques. The implementation of getting science and technologies to farmer households and the improvement of farmers quality are important basis for agricultural efficiency increase and farm
32、ers income growth, and a strong pillar to accelerated development of modern agriculture and rural areas. Along with the ever-progressing agricultural modernization in China, 4farmers consciousness about learning and using sciences and technologies becomes increasing strong and farmers demand for pro
33、sperity relying on sciences and technologies becomes higher and higher. Since the establishment of the science and technology broadcast station in Changdian Village of Shangzhuang Township in Qianan County of Hebei Province, farmers approach the village committee almost every day to enquire about th
34、e contents and schedule of broadcast. Therefore, the village committee established various regulations to ensure that the work would be smoothly carried out and farmers demands are met. For instance, village committee has established record systems of broadcast contents, plans and arrangements of ea
35、ch week, farmers opinions and suggestions, effects of the program voiced, and the loaning of audio programs. As such, the broadcast station can timely understand farmers demand and attend to farmers recommendations so as to do a better job. After attending the opinions of farmers, the broadcast stat
36、ion of Liuguo Village of Chengde County of Hebei Province produced and broadcasted programs in association with agricultural seasons, local agricultural structure and local feature of agricultural production. Knowledge is disseminated during slack season and technologies are diffused during busy far
37、ming season. In addition, while conducting programs, their attention is given to four synchronizations: the contents broadcasted go hand in hand with local industries, technologies broadcasted go hand in hand with production season, market information broadcasted goes hand in hand with the market an
38、d knowledge broadcasted goes hand in hand with farmers needs, hence it stimulated the interest of farmers of listening and learning. For the past year, through sampling survey conducted in 50 villages within Hebei Province, it was found that on average 82% of farmer households in rural areas in the
39、sampled areas listened to the broadcast on time. Among the listeners, 92% of them held that the contents broadcasted played guiding role to their agricultural production and other agro-business activities. Practice has proven that this is an effective way to improve the farmers science, technology a
40、nd education level. 3. Convenient, fast, vast coverage and strong operationalityBroadcast media has the characteristics rapid response, easy operation and vast coverage, the community broadcast in rural area in particular is an important media in economically less developed areas and has large numbe
41、r of recipients, which is for farmers the most convenient channel to accept practical information and technologies. Using loudspeakers to air program does not affect any activities of farmers (field work and housekeeping). Farmers do not need to allocate special time but rather use meal time early i
42、n the morning, at noon and in the evening to listen to regular broadcasts. This is to promote a gradual change from a passive listener to a habit, and as time progresses, it will be become a need of farmers. As such, farmers consciousness about science and technology is improved and it has become a
43、fashion for farmers to learn and use sciences. 4. Combination of the traditional broadcast with modern media low cost and high efficiency.Loudspeakers in rural areas and other corresponding broadcast equipment are the available broadcast resources built and accumulated by grassroots cadres in the pa
44、st years, therefore, it does not require new investment in establishing agricultural science and technology broadcast station, the only thing needed is to check and repair the equipment. If management is further 5strengthened, regulations are established, jobs and positions are set up and the broadc
45、asting is taken as an important function of the village committee, it will be extremely smooth to deliver the work. Major input needed is the production and reproduction of audio programs in science and technology. Our study has discovered that along with the broad application of digital technologie
46、s and continued development of modernization in rural areas, some rural areas already have the capability to use computers to browse the Internet. Therefore, we converted the agricultural programs produced by agricultural broadcast and television schools at various levels into digital format and pla
47、ced in the fixed columns in the distance education website for rural areas and the broadcast stations can download these programs from the Internet to the MP3 players that is connected with an amplifier to directly broadcast the programs via loudspeakers in rural areas. Such combination of modern an
48、d traditional media is faster and more convenient, which saved stages and costs for copying of audio cassettes and for transportation and distribution. It further improved efficiency and lowered costs. Through serious comparison study of 10 villages that use different types of broadcast modalities,
49、when audio cassettes are used, the average input of a village annually is about 1,500 RMB Yuan; if MP3 player is used, the average annual input is only 500-800 RMB Yuan. MP3 can be used repeatedly and has the advantages of using the shortest time to transmit the latest agricultural production technologies and information to farmers. Such a cost-effective modality of technology transmission is undoubtedly an effective way of improving farmers quality, which has high value for extension. III. Primary results of using loudspeakers to carry out trainin
