Modern edible mushroom cultivation helps a post-80s young man return home and build wealth

Jin Jiamei, who graduated from high school in 2000, missed out on university and therefore joined the ranks of those heading south to work. He drifted through Guangdong, Zhejiang and other places. While working at Suzhou Quancheng Electronics Co., Ltd. in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, he started as an employee earning a few hundred yuan and, in just two years, was trained into a technical backbone and promoted to quality control section chief, with a monthly salary of more than 4,000 yuan.

At a gathering of coworkers, he happened to meet an edible mushroom boss who had come to Suzhou to sell shiitake mushrooms. At the banquet, hearing this boss talk endlessly about the sources of raw materials for edible mushrooms, the market potential and development prospects of edible mushrooms, and encourage them that working elsewhere was not as good as being their own boss, this Wu Yeqian, who had more than 20 years of edible mushroom technology experience, declared at the table that whoever was willing to go home and develop it would receive technical support and mushroom spawn from him.

That night, Wu Yeqian's endless explanations lingered in Jin Jiamei's ears, and before his eyes appeared the raw materials all over his hometown, which local people actually used as firewood for cooking and wasted for nothing. He resolved to return home to develop edible mushrooms, so he took out his mobile phone and contacted Wu Yeqian, talked about the idea of going home to become a mushroom king, received the support of this open-minded boss, and came with Jin Jiamei to Yaoling Township, Yunyang County, to investigate.

In 2007, Jin Jiamei, carrying several years of savings, returned to his hometown and began to start a business relying on Xiangxiang. Rural thinking was closed off, and some farmers began to object, on the grounds that “farmers live by the land, and the whole family is supported by grain”; if farmers lost grain cultivation, what would they eat? With the support and coordination of the Party committee and government of Yaoling Township, and through patient and meticulous work, the members of Group 3 of Xieli Village agreed to lease part of the land. Jin Jiamei began preparing to cultivate mushrooms. He and technician Wu Yeqian went to Zhejiang to buy 20,000 yuan worth of mushroom spawn. Afterwards, he began to buy a grinder, bagging machine, dryer and other equipment.

When the base was first established, he and technician Wu Yeqian stayed day and night in the mushroom shed at Yadiba, following Wu's on-site requirements for cultivation techniques such as building the shed, mixing materials, dividing bags, sterilization, inoculation and mycelium growth. They worked like this for more than two months, sometimes resting only three hours a day. In the process of growing shiitake mushrooms, there were lessons from failure. At first, when inoculating the spawn, they followed Zhejiang's inoculation time, thus delaying avoidance of high-temperature weather, and they also failed to properly control the temperature and humidity required by the spawn, resulting in no mushrooms emerging from the later inoculated beds. Bean-sized blisters appeared at the corners of his mouth. He hurriedly consulted technician Wu Yeqian, analyzed the causes, and looked for the root of the problem…… In the end, shiitake mushroom buds all grew.

Up to now, Jin Jiamei has expanded from 1 greenhouse to 3 greenhouses, from 3 to 6, from 30,000 bags of shiitake mushrooms to 100,000 bags, from 100,000 bags to 250,000 bags, and from annual income of 80,000 yuan to the current annual increased income of 800,000 yuan, with workers increasing from the original 5 to the current 30.

Jin Jiamei told this writer that he also wants to learn to be a big boss and hire several more helpers. He is still young, so being a little tired is no big deal. “In 2011 we established the Qiyao Mountain Mushroom Industry Cooperative, developed 15 shiitake mushroom growing households, planted 500,000 bags of shiitake mushrooms, and the output value reached 5 million yuan.” Jin Jiamei told reporters.

He said, “This year I will expand the scale by 2 times, preparing to develop to 500,000 bags, which can provide nearby employment for more than 60 villagers and achieve an output value of more than 10 million yuan.”