A Study On Farmer Learning Behaviour And Farmer Training Provided By Long Distance Education System In Rural Area

The study focused on the characteristics of farmer learning behavior in learning motivation, information sources and learning preference by use of PRA method. Based on the findings, to find out how to improve the farmer training provided by long distance education system in rural area of Beijing municipality.The conclusions of this study are summarized as follows:1. The motivation or purpose of learning is different in different fanner categories; the major motivation is to have more opportunities for income generation. The young farmers who have a junior high school degree are to get a diploma. The farmers who have a primary school degree are to improve the farm management and solve their current problems. The poor farmers are to learn more techniques and improve the farm management and the rich farmers are for improvement of their status.2. The farmers have various information sources and the mass media is the main information source of the farmers. The rich farmers have more information sources than the poor farmers. The rich farmers have more connection with mass media and the Agriculture Service Centre. The poor farmers and the farmers who graduated from primary school would like to receive information more from interpersonal communication; the middle age farmers prefer gaining information from the Agriculture Service Center.3. The opinion leaders play important role in interpersonal communication process. They make transformation of the information from mass media to the one that individual farmer can received directly and easily. The farmers like to learn from their neighbors in the village.4. The way of farmer learning is through observation based on their experiences. The main learning method of the farmers is observing and imitating according to their experience and condition.5. The main function of rural long distance education system is knowledge and information dissemination and the Agriculture Service Center is mainly for problem solving in local area.6. The farmers like the training program from the long distance education system in rural area of Beijing as the program edited in combination of verbal explanation with pictures.At end of the thesis, the author put forward some suggestions based on the findings from the study and the current situation training provided by the long distance education. The main suggestions are as follows: the main target of training provided by long distance education should be the opinion leaders, have more channel for cooperation with the Agriculture Service Center, to provide more diploma education for the young farmers who have a junior high school degree; to carry out more survey for training need assessment so that the training provided will meet the farmer needs.