Button mushroom farming turns layman Chen Junhai into a local expert and sets him on the road to prosperity

On April 11, our reporter walked into the Yisheng Fruit and Vegetable Farmers' Professional Cooperative in Mazhuangying Village, Daxiaobao Township, Xiaoyi City, and saw neat, clean white greenhouses bathed in sunlight, with the fresh scent of soil filling the air; stepping inside a greenhouse, one could see little white mushrooms wearing "caps" quietly poking their heads out of the mushroom beds, while three middle-aged women were picking them, their movements skilled: pressing down and giving a gentle twist, and the little button mushrooms came free from the beds.

This base was founded by Chen Junhai, chairman of the Yisheng Fruit and Vegetable Farmers' Professional Cooperative. From open fields to greenhouses, from coarse grains to fungi, Chen Junhai has devoted himself to agricultural cultivation for more than ten years. However the environment changes, what does not change is his devotion to agriculture. On this path as a new-style farmer, experimentation is his attitude; exploration is his route, doing what others dare not do and what others have never done. He took the initiative to start a business and lead his fellow villagers to prosperity. In Mazhuangying Village, Daxiaobao Township, when Chen Junhai is mentioned, local people all give a thumbs-up in unison and praise him, saying that he led everyone to blaze a new trail out of poverty toward prosperity.

"Because edible fungi as a product have broad market prospects, and on the other hand, they use agricultural and forestry waste and convert it into edible fungus products, so it can basically be called an industry that turns waste into treasure." When asked why he went into this line of work, Chen Junhai explained his view. "I once went to Fujian and Zhejiang, and later to closer places like Pingyao, to investigate. I found that the button mushroom industry is quite suitable for us. Whether in terms of economic returns, its growing environment, or the climate, it can stagger its season with the south, so I decided to develop in this direction."

Chen Junhai, who had spent more than ten years conducting open-field experiments, switched to fungus cultivation, and by anyone's account he was a layman. That is because button mushrooms are not like crops such as wheat and corn; they are naturally delicate and require extra care. But Chen Junhai did not lose heart. He spent half a year investigating, from oyster mushrooms to button mushrooms, looking not only at the tricks of the trade but also at development bottlenecks.

Regarding innovation in button mushroom cultivation, Chen Junhai told our reporter, "For the ventilation openings of the mushroom house over the years, whether on field visits elsewhere or in the local area around us, they have all been aluminum composite panels. The problem with aluminum composite panels is that once they go through high-temperature sterilization they become deformed, and they cannot maintain the internal temperature and so on; they are not sealed, and besides, pulling the vents wider or narrower is also unreasonable."

If it is unreasonable, it must be made reasonable. Chen Junhai thought of replacing them with glass, but because glass itself has good light transmission, which is not conducive to the growth of button mushrooms, the industry had never dared to use it. Yet Chen Junhai was happy to be the pioneer, drawing and measuring himself, digging grooves and carrying out construction, and renovating the cultivation base. After repeated experiments, Chen Junhai not only used a glass structure to solve the problems of button mushrooms not being able to withstand strong light and of aluminum composite panels deforming at high temperatures, but also improved the daytime lighting environment inside the mushroom house, achieving multiple benefits at once.

While touring Chen Junhai's "treasures" and walking into the mushroom house, one saw that the interior looked more like a construction work, with well-spaced density and all the space fully utilized. More than a dozen cooperative members stood on bamboo racks nearly two meters high, picking mushrooms with ease of movement.

"At the time, the conventional setup was six layers, but with six layers the space could not all be used; there was always an empty section at the top, so I thought about how to raise it by one more layer, and then one more layer." Regarding the mushroom house design, Chen Junhai shared his ideas with the reporter. "Fujian bamboo is relatively resistant to moisture and dampness, and withstands high temperatures when steam is applied, so I chose Fujian bamboo as the main material. In terms of improving the structure, people did not dare to break convention, so I changed the structure, making it possible to walk on top of all the mushroom house's upper racks just as on the ground, and to move through all of it."

Adding one more layer is like stacking building blocks; it tests the structure of the entire bamboo bed. If it is not added well or not added firmly, all the bamboo beds will produce a chain reaction like dominoes, and ultimately the loss will be an entire mushroom house. But how can you know it definitely will not work without trying? If all were raised, the cultivation area would also increase greatly. After some consideration, Chen Junhai moved the experimental site to a newly built mushroom house. From material selection to structural design, it was another exploration that broke convention.

The mushrooms grew one crop after another, and Chen Junhai carried out one experiment after another, on ventilation openings and bamboo beds. His experiments were neither big nor small, but what mattered was his courage to break convention. He changed the heating facilities to underfloor heating to make heat distribution more even; he extended the sterilization time by 24 hours to make sterilization cleaner. Small mushrooms release great energy, and Chen Junhai's "mushroom book of experience" grows ever thicker.

From layman to expert, watching more, listening more, thinking more, and practicing more, advancing step by step and working steadily, the mushrooms Chen Junhai grew became outstanding among his peers. Coupled with the limitations of growing conditions in the south, button mushrooms became a hot commodity on the southern market. From pricing by buyers to pricing by suppliers, the little mushrooms blazed a road to prosperity.

As the visit was about to end, Chen Junhai pointed to his "works" and said with deep feeling, "Whatever you do, you must innovate. In agriculture, it really can raise things to a higher level. I just kept walking step by step in an experimental way. Whenever I found something good somewhere, I analyzed the reasons, came back and ran experiments. Through several rounds of experiments, step by step I raised the greenhouse's output, saved labor, and brought costs down. With output raised, economic returns followed accordingly."

Now, Chen Junhai is walking full of confidence on a road to prosperity filled with hope. Speaking of his plans for the future, he said, "The next step is to continue using innovative scientific planting methods and an industrialized agricultural management model to leverage the starting point for increasing farmers' income, give full play to the supporting role of science and technology, and push the development of the button mushroom industry to a higher level. At the same time, we must also introduce newer and better mushroom strains, and while developing and growing stronger, realize the dream of increasing income and becoming prosperous."