Chinese President Xi Jinping has replied to a letter from students participating in a program at the China Agricultural University (CAU) that dispatches students to the frontlines of agricultural production.

In the letter, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, encouraged the students to make greater contributions to rural revitalization.

He also extended greetings to China's young people ahead of the Youth Day on May 4.

Xi said he was glad to learn that the agricultural experimental stations launched by the CAU has provided the students with opportunities to acquire agricultural expertise and learn about people's livelihoods by going into fields and villages, which is conducive to rural revitalization.

Replying to the students' remarks that they had learned to seek truth from facts and maintain close ties with the people only when they went deep into China's rural areas, Xi said that this is the spirit that Chinese youth in the new era should have.

The 20th National Congress of the CPC has made plans for building China's strength in agriculture, Xi said, hoping the students will closely integrate textbooks with practice in rural areas, and devote their youth and strength to speeding up rural and agricultural modernization and the building of a modern socialist country.

The CAU launched the first agricultural experimental station under the program, known as "science and technology backyards," in Quzhou County, north China's Hebei Province, in 2009, aiming to study and solve practical problems in the development of agriculture and rural areas, train high-level agricultural talents, and serve rural and agricultural modernization. There are now 139 such stations across the country.

(Cover: Students from China Agricultural University check data on a screen in an orchard in Xiying Village of Yukou Township in Pinggu District of Beijing, capital of China, September 19, 2021. /Xinhua)