Mushroom King Ma Huishan Leads Poor Households onto the Road to Prosperity

Recently, at the Huishan Edible Fungi Cooperative in Guoyang County, Huaibei, Anhui, mushroom bags lay "sleeping" in the warm-as-spring greenhouses like plump white babies. "In cold weather mushrooms grow slowly, but their flesh is thick, the quality is good, and the nutrition is high. Right now one jin of mushrooms sells for 2 yuan, and by the Spring Festival it can sell for 3 yuan." Cooperative head Ma Huishan told reporters while picking mushrooms.

Ma Huishan contracted polio in his childhood, and because his family was poor at the time and he could not receive effective treatment, he was left disabled. But with a disabled body and a firm will, he relied on edible fungi production technology to embark on the road to prosperity.

In July 1998, Ma Huishan was admitted to Fuyang Agricultural School with excellent grades, becoming the first "scholar" in the village. After graduation, he was unwilling to accept an assigned job and resolutely returned to his hometown to grow mushrooms. At the time, the villagers all said he was foolish, and his parents strongly opposed it too. "My son is very stubborn; as long as he likes something, he simply must do it," said Ma Huishan's mother, Han Hongying. Using the knowledge he had learned, Ma Huishan raised funds to build an edible fungi greenhouse. After many days and nights of hard work, mushrooms like flower petals finally reached the market. Every day Ma Huishan went to the market to set up a stall and sell fresh mushrooms, and in less than a year he earned more than 8,000 yuan. Digging up his first bucket of gold by growing mushrooms made Ma Huishan unstoppable, and he expanded from the original one greenhouse to 5 greenhouses, with an annual income of more than 50,000 yuan. Ma Huishan's family also became a prosperous household in the village. He also led more than ten local farming households to grow edible fungi and prosper.

"After technical improvements, growing mushrooms each year can consume more than 100,000 jin of various kinds of straw," Ma Huishan said. The edible fungi he grows are all green food, sold to major local supermarkets and restaurants, and can also be picked and sold on site. To develop better, Ma Huishan has already transferred 120 mu of land this year to implement intercropping of fruit trees and edible fungi. "The fruit trees not only shade the mushrooms but also provide nutrients, and the spent mushroom substrate after harvesting becomes organic fertilizer for the fruit trees."

Ma Huishan told reporters: the Bozhou Municipal Agricultural Committee has already approached him several times to discuss poverty alleviation, promoting Ma Huishan's edible fungi planting cooperative to become a local targeted poverty alleviation base. "I can produce 5,000 bags of edible fungi to help one poor household of four, letting the poor household manage, pick, and sell by themselves, without needing to invest funds, raw materials, and so on, benefiting directly, and achieving an income of twenty or thirty thousand yuan a year. All the profit is given to the poor household, and the Municipal Agricultural Committee gives me a certain subsidy." Speaking of helping poor households escape poverty as soon as possible, Ma Huishan was full of confidence.