Veteran Pu Weiguo Starts a Business Growing Edible Mushrooms, Helping Fellow Villagers Get Rich

Walking into the edible mushroom growing greenhouse of Heshengyuan Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Cooperative in Tugou Village, Minquan Township, Gulang County, light brown mushrooms grow on the fungus sticks like little umbrellas, the tender fresh mushrooms clustering closely together, their growth extremely pleasing.

Pu Weiguo, head of Heshengyuan Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Cooperative, is a veteran. His precious military career forged in him the fine qualities of enduring hardship and daring to take responsibility. After returning home from the army, faced with his hometown's impoverished state, Pu Weiguo did not shrink back, but secretly resolved that he must help the villagers get rich and let everyone live a good life.

Through many trips out to investigate, Pu Weiguo discovered that "edible mushroom cultivation" had broad market prospects. After some deliberation, Pu Weiguo raised more than 200,000 yuan and began his entrepreneurial journey in 2 idle solar greenhouses in Tugou Village. Some people questioned the project he planned, but in the end he did not waver in his choice. With the help of the local Party committee and government, he completed all approval procedures and established Heshengyuan Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Cooperative, implementing an industrialized business model of "enterprise + cooperative + farming households + base."

"This year, our 2 solar greenhouses put in a total of 38,000 fungus bags, with a total investment of 133,000 yuan. Each fungus bag produces an average of 1.5 kg of edible mushrooms, and calculating at a field-side purchase price of 5 yuan per kg, total sales revenue reached 285,000 yuan, with a profit of 152,000 yuan." Pu Weiguo told reporters that the entire production cycle, from material preparation, fermentation, disinfection, inoculating the fungus spawn, and bagging to harvesting and sales, takes 3 months. By this calculation, 2-3 crops can be produced in a year, and annual profit per greenhouse can reach about 80,000-120,000 yuan.

"The construction of this project has brought endless vitality to the village, giving many villagers something to do, money to earn, and a good life to live. It will also drive more young people who work away from home to return and start businesses, sending them the hope and motivation to start a business." Zhang Xingxiang, Party secretary of Minquan Township, said with emotion. Pu Weiguo's edible mushroom industry, even at its currently rather limited scale, has already provided jobs for more than 30 fellow villagers, with monthly income all above 2,000 yuan.

"The work here is clean and hygienic, and you don't feel especially tired. You can earn money right at your doorstep and still take care of the elderly and children." Aunt Liu Peiying of Tugou Village told reporters.

There is no turning back once the arrow is shot. Pu Weiguo said that he must now make this edible mushroom industry bigger and better, because only in this way can he help fellow villagers increase their income and get rich. Next, he will continue to expand production scale, having completed land preparation on 200 mu of barren beach land in Zone B of No. 9 Resettlement Point along the Golden Avenue, to build basic infrastructure such as an edible mushroom production raw materials yard, an ingredient warehouse, and a fungus bag production workshop, providing basic guarantees for the scaled development of the edible mushroom industry.

Zhang Xingxiang told reporters that Minquan Township will, through the development approach of "government guidance, Party branch leadership, cooperative taking the lead, and poor households participating," and according to the principles of unified planning, steady development, demonstration-driven progress, and overall advancement, repair and renovate the original solar greenhouses, support capable people like Pu Weiguo to take the lead first in production, and have poor households, driven by these capable people, carry out production and operation according to the standard of 1 greenhouse per household through loan support, policy support, and self-raised funds from the masses. The planting scale will be continuously expanded, making the edible mushroom industry a specialty industry that drives the rapid development of Minquan's economy and greatly increases farmers' income.