Reality show turns young artists into influential agri-preneurs

However, because of the show's ballooning popularity and the farm's still limited production, whatever they have produced so far—roses, tulips, lettuce, and rice—all sold out like hotcakes, barely enough to satisfy the demand of devoted fans.

For example, on Thursday noon, a few minutes after the farm published its recent commodity—a pack of 500-gram rice featuring an illustration by Zhao Xiaotong—on its store on the micro-blogging platform Sina Weibo, more than 26,000 packages were snapped up.

Without simply reaping and resting on increasing laurels and sponsorship advertising, producers and participants have already channeled the show's popularity into sharing prosperity with more of the country's farmers.

"In the new season, we have the same hard-working spirit, but we have gained a sense of responsibility and mission as new farmers," said Zhao Yibo, one of the 10 farming youths. "Last year, we only sold things from our farm, but this year, we also want to leverage our current influence to help promote the development of villages and farmers," he added.

Li Gengyun, one of the show's participants, is growing Erjingtiao, a variety of chilli peppers popular in Sichuan cuisine. Working on hot sauce recipes, Li said he wanted to help increase the income of chilli pepper farmers in his hometown, Southwest China's Chongqing. Wang Yiheng shared that he wanted to help sell the crayfish of his friend together with whom he learned crayfish breeding in Xuyi, Jiangsu province.

The 10 young men went to Northwest China's Gansu province before this year's National Tree Planting Day on March 12. There, they held live-streaming sales to help sell local agricultural produce and bought 180,000 saxaul trees. They spent a week planting them on the sandy land of Tengger Desert with local villagers and agricultural university students. Their efforts won widespread praise on social media and inspired many to join them in contributing to the country's afforestation endeavor.

"The goal that we want to achieve most and will work hard toward is to make more people pay attention to agriculture and help farmers live a better life," said Wu Han, producer of the show.