Mushroom cultivation leads two post-80s entrepreneurs to guide fellow villagers onto the road to prosperity

Under blue skies and white clouds, amid green mountains and clear waters, blue sheet-metal sheds and white cultivation greenhouses are neatly arranged in the mountain hollow, giving this small mountain village a touch of modernity... Standing by the village road from Gantun to Luofu Tun in Luofu Village, Daleng Township, Youjiang District, Baise City, Guangxi, looking out, a silver plaque reading "Luofu Linyuan Planting Farmers' Professional Cooperative" comes into view.

This is an agricultural cooperative founded by two "post-80s" - Huang Jiaxue, a young "post-80s"; and Huang Zhi, also a young "post-80s".

Once, Huang Zhi, who had long been making his way outside, returned to his hometown and talked with Huang Jiaxue, who served as deputy director of the Luofu Village Committee, about the idea of returning home to start a business.

"Starting a business at home lets you take care of the elderly and children, and also lead your fellow villagers to prosperity together - why not do it?" One understood policy and had land; the other had sales channels and knew technology. The two hit it off immediately and decided to establish an agricultural cooperative to develop edible fungus (shiitake mushroom) cultivation and production.

Why choose to develop shiitake mushroom cultivation? "I did a shiitake mushroom wholesale business outside and know that shiitake mushrooms sell well and have good prospects. At the same time, the mushroom-producing period for edible fungi generally runs from mid-to-late November to mid-April of the following year, which makes management easy, and cultivating farmers can also pick mushrooms while doing other farm work at staggered times," Huang Zhi said.

They acted as soon as they decided. In July 2016, the Linyuan Planting Farmers' Professional Cooperative was established. With the support of Baise Electric Power Company, the unit assisting Luofu Village, and the Youjiang District Science and Technology Bureau, the road leading to the cooperative was hardened, production equipment was purchased, and the production base was built.

But the beginning was not smooth. "Can this thing that doesn't grow in the soil really bring income?" Luofu Village's geography and climate are very suitable for edible fungus growth, but when the two young men mobilized the village's residents, especially impoverished households, to invest and join the cooperative to jointly develop edible fungus cultivation, the villagers did not agree.

"Facts are the most persuasive." After repeated efforts to persuade the villagers produced no result, Huang Zhi and Huang Jiaxue decided to let facts speak and dispel the villagers' doubts.

On rows of neatly arranged mushroom sticks, small brown or grayish-white caps emerged one after another, with fresh and tender shiitake mushrooms clustered tightly together... By the end of September 2016, 6 edible fungus cultivation greenhouses had been built at the cooperative's planting base, and dense shiitake mushrooms "broke out of the bags." When the accounts were calculated, nearly 90,000 shiitake mushroom sticks, with each stick's shiitake mushrooms producing a profit of 3 yuan, could yield a net profit of 300,000 yuan! Seeing the cultivation greenhouses at the base and the shiitake mushrooms growing, the villagers no longer stood by watching and eagerly asked to join.

At present, the cooperative has 42 farming households joined, with 165 members, including 30 impoverished households with 121 people. The cooperative adopts a "company + cooperative + impoverished households (farmers) + base" business model, eliminating the villagers' worries. At the same time, the cooperative adopts the method of farmers investing and holding shares, so they can enjoy dividends without participating in management, and farmers can also directly participate in production management to increase labor income.

How are technical problems solved? "In addition to carrying out training on cultivation and care techniques, we also often invite agricultural experts to provide on-site guidance to improve farmers' cultivation and management levels," Huang Jiaxue said.

Now, those mushroom sticks bearing shiitake mushrooms have in the eyes of the villagers truly become "money trees." From last November to now, the cooperative has picked and sold more than 80,000 jin of shiitake mushrooms, earning more than 200,000 yuan in profit, with the average net income of cooperative farming households exceeding 5,000 yuan, achieving increased income and poverty alleviation.

"This year, we plan to develop 150,000 shiitake mushroom sticks, guide more impoverished households to join the cooperative, and let the villagers enrich their paths to prosperity and escape poverty as soon as possible." Speaking of the next step, Huang Zhi and Huang Jiaxue are full of confidence.