During the recent Spring Festival holiday, a visit to Xiguan Village in Qitang Town, Bishan District, Chongqing, revealed a scene brimming with entrepreneurial energy and rural vitality. Under the winter sun, strawberries glowed red and morel mushrooms sprouted from the soil inside greenhouses. Nearby, a modern, minimalist-style matcha cafe stood in the rice fields, attracting young people taking photos. In a live-streaming courtyard, hosts were promoting local agricultural specialties to their online audience. This dynamism stems from Bishan District's initiative to create an agricultural "incubator," continuously attracting new-generation farmers, developing rural industries, and injecting momentum into rural development.
Peng Hu, a committee member of the Organization Department of the Bishan District Committee, stated that in 2025, Bishan piloted the establishment of a Rural Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship College. This college acts as an agricultural industry "incubator," facilitating the efficient flow of talent, capital, and technology to rural areas. It provides comprehensive support for new farmers, guiding them from initial ideas to established industries.
"Without the support of the Rural Innovation College, my live-streaming team could not have taken root and expanded so quickly," said Xiao Fubing, an online host based in the live-streaming courtyard in Xiguan Village. After his team settled in the village in 2023, the college helped repurpose vacant farmhouses to create the "Live-Streaming Courtyard" entrepreneurial base. Xiao was integrated into the college's "Live-Streaming School" mentor system and received assistance in securing a bank credit line of 5 million yuan for further development. His team has now nurtured over 20 local hosts, generates annual sales exceeding 30 million yuan, and has invested in building a vermicelli factory and a processing center, thereby promoting the development of contract farming.
Addressing challenges like funding shortages faced by new farmers, Bishan has collaborated with venture capital firms, banks, and insurance companies to launch exclusive financial products for rural innovation. These offer credit lines of up to 6 million yuan with interest rates approximately 30% lower than similar products. The district also provides workspaces and greenhouse plots, along with startup subsidies, operational support, and full-cycle guidance to help entrepreneurs begin with low initial costs.
Another significant challenge for new farmers is the lack of technical expertise. To address this, Bishan District has partnered with universities like Sichuan Agricultural University and Southwest University to establish expert workstations, industrial practice bases, and science and technology courtyards. These platforms continuously channel intellectual resources into the countryside, strengthening rural industrial development.
At a morel mushroom cultivation site in Qitang Town, clusters of grey-brown mushrooms are sprouting healthily from the soil. It is reported that the Southwest University (Bishan) Rural Revitalization Expert Workstation established this 40-mu morel mushroom project in Qitang Town in 2025, with an expected annual output value exceeding 3 million yuan. "Currently, with support from the expert workstation, university specialists are regularly stationed in the fields," said Wan Yang, Party Secretary of Qitang Town. "They provide ongoing technical guidance for projects like our town's morel mushroom cultivation and smart pigpen construction, precisely delivering intellectual resources to the front lines of rural industry."
Thriving industries lead to a revitalized countryside, and new farmers are rapidly gathering in Bishan. To date, the district has successfully established 71 rural entrepreneurship projects, attracted over 50 scientific and technological professionals to reside in villages for成果转化, and brought in more than 120 rural internet influencers to live and work locally. This accelerates the cultivation and concentration of a diverse talent pool encompassing agricultural technology, farm management, rural e-commerce live-streaming, and rural art revitalization.
A relevant official from the Organization Department of the Bishan District Committee stated that the next step involves fully leveraging the platform function of the Rural Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship College. Starting from the actual needs of rural development, Bishan will continue to aggregate rural talent teams, using talent revitalization as a driver for the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside.
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