Chen Quanyong: The Dedicated Guardian of Lu'an's "Golden Land"

[Editor's note]Chen Quanyong, edible fungi research expert, aerospace breeding expert, and chairman of the Jin Tudi Agricultural Science Popularization Demonstration Garden in Lu'an, Anhui, has been awarded titles including "National Outstanding Young Rural Spark Leader," "Advanced Individual in Science Popularization Work in Anhui Province," "Outstanding Entrepreneur in Anhui's Edible Fungi Industry," and "Youth Civilization Award Model."

"For more than thirty years, space peppers made me famous throughout the Jianghuai region, and lingzhi (Ganoderma) made me known across the land. There have been constant ups and downs along the way, but my original aspiration remains unchanged. What keeps me persevering and exploring is my love for the land and my passion and dedication to agriculture." Talking with reporters about his entrepreneurial journey, Chen Quanyong was full of passion, recounting everything with great familiarity. At the turn of spring and summer this year, a group of reporters came to the Jin Tudi Agricultural Science Popularization Demonstration Garden in Sanshipu Town, Jin'an District, Lu'an City, Anhui Province. Meeting Chen Quanyong for the first time, the initial impression was of a man with a stubbly beard, a dark complexion, and mud always on his leather shoes... Many years ago, in Lu'an, mentioning Chen Quanyong, the "Lingzhi King" of Sanshipu, was almost universally known, and his edible fungi spawn factory and Jin Tudi Agricultural Science Popularization Demonstration Garden were also fondly praised by people.

The story of Chen Quanyong must begin in 1984, when at fifteen or sixteen years old he left school and began making life choices early. Tracing back through history, decades of the communal canteen system had brought only poverty and backwardness to the old revolutionary base area, and the hardships of life left a deep imprint on Chen Quanyong's young mind. Once, he read in a newspaper that developing edible fungi was highly profitable, and he conceived the idea of developing edible fungi, thinking it might help his parents bit by bit, or perhaps change the lives of his fellow villagers. His idea did not gain his parents' support, but his inner desire made him disregard his family's opposition and quietly take 80 yuan that the family had set aside for buying a piglet to go out and study. During the day he followed his parents to work in the fields, and at night he caught loaches to sell for money to buy books, materials, and mushroom spawn. Repeated failures did not discourage him. The 30th day of the third lunar month in 1985 was the happiest day of Chen Quanyong's life. When he harvested a basket of fresh mushrooms from under his bed, he proudly announced to his parents that he had succeeded, saying this was science! The joy of success strengthened Chen Quanyong's confidence, and he wanted to start his own spawn factory. The then-township head of Sanshipu Town arranged a 200-yuan loan for him from the credit cooperative, and he used this money to purchase some startup equipment. Having suffered setbacks and failures, Chen Quanyong deeply understood that edible fungi cultivation is a science. In his advance into the field of edible fungi, Chen Quanyong studied culture and technology tirelessly, forgetting food and sleep, traveling across the land to visit renowned teachers and consult experts and scholars. It was this unremitting effort that brought abundant results. He successfully cultivated oyster mushrooms, Phoenix-tail mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, silver ear mushrooms, bamboo fungus, and lion's mane mushrooms. Using a new soil-casing technique, he cultivated extra-large oyster mushrooms, with a single cluster weighing up to 23.75, a high-quality and high-yield spawn strain. Using nutrient simulation and sexual hybridization breeding, he increased the yield of Gastrodia elata in the Dabie Mountains by more than 30%. Chen Quanyong collected wild lingzhi from Tiantangzhai in Jinzhai County, and after hundreds of experiments on the humidity, light, and nutrient formula of lingzhi mother spawn, he invented field soil-casing cultivation of Dabie Mountain lingzhi, which has bright color, large caps, thick flesh, and good quality, ranking first among all lingzhi varieties. Dabie Mountain lingzhi occupied almost all of the domestic lingzhi market. In October 1991, he was invited to attend the Beijing International Lingzhi Symposium. At the conference, his paper "Preliminary Report on the Domestication and Cultivation Research of Dabie Mountain Lingzhi" received high praise from more than 140 experts from home and abroad, and won the Special Award for International Papers on Wild Domestication and Cultivation of Lingzhi. Dabie Mountain lingzhi caused a sensation at the exhibition, and companies from Hong Kong, China, Japan, and other countries immediately requested cooperation. Jeff Charlton from the United States praised it repeatedly and decided on the spot to exclusively distribute it. Now Dabie Mountain lingzhi enjoys a high reputation internationally, and Chen Quanyong has thereby earned the title "Lingzhi King" of the Dabie Mountains.

In early 2000, Chen Quanyong selected a stretch of more than 300 mu of barren hilly land in the village to start his "Golden Land" enterprise. In 2001, he accidentally learned about space breeding technology and conceived the idea of aerospace breeding. In April 2003, when he heard that China's self-developed manned spacecraft was about to launch, he was extremely excited and traveled back and forth between Beijing and Anhui to discuss aerospace breeding matters. A female staff member at the aerospace department could not bear to see Chen Quanyong making the trip back and forth, and told him clearly that only the Chinese Academy of Sciences could make this happen. The speaker meant no particular intent, but the listener took it to heart. Chen Quanyong then found a way to contact the relevant department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Through unremitting efforts, the seeds Chen Quanyong provided were eventually approved for satellite payload. Many years later today, Chen Quanyong still says very proudly: "The first time China's satellite carried seeds from a private technology enterprise, it was our 'Golden Land' seeds."

Afterward, Chen Quanyong devoted himself wholeheartedly to the cause of aerospace breeding. He broke the traditional conventional breeding model, carried out space payload selection of parent plants, and through hybridization methods successively bred more than 70 new space tomato varieties, 12 new space pepper varieties, 1 sweet glutinous fragrant corn variety, and multiple new vegetable varieties including space strawberry, space raspberry, and space cowpea, with a total of more than 100 varieties. Among them, 18 new varieties have passed provincial-level approval. These seedlings are now exported to Russia, France, South Korea, Singapore, and other places. Today's Jin Tudi Agricultural Science Popularization Demonstration Garden has become one of China's larger professional aerospace vegetable breeding bases and has registered the trademarks "Hangyu" and "Aobeilei."

Having prospered, Chen Quanyong did not forget his fellow villagers or forget to give back to society. He started edible fungi training classes, and driving more farmers to prosperity through science and technology has always been Chen Quanyong's wish. Since 1987, he has run training classes. He has trained more than 50,000 person-times of agricultural professional technical talent, with trainees spread across 27 provinces and cities nationwide. Facing the enthusiasm of trainees, he explained theory courses in simple and accessible terms, and guided practice courses meticulously, making sure every trainee understood clearly. After trainees returned home, he also provided follow-up services with regular technical guidance. Today he has students everywhere, having trained more than 50,000 edible fungi talents. Chen Quanyong also provided funds to build gravel roads for his hometown and, together with the Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, opened the "Anhui Agricultural Bookstore" in the provincial capital Hefei, guiding farmers to learn science and use science. In 2002, Anhui People's Radio jointly held the "Golden Land Cup" essay contest on the theme "My Road to Prosperity" to encourage farmers who had taken the path to prosperity through science and technology. Chen Quanyong has successively compiled and authored popular science books including "Guidance on High-Yield Cultivation of Edible Fungi," "Lingzhi Cultivation Techniques," "Cultivation Techniques of Rare Edible and Medicinal Fungi," "Oyster Mushroom Cultivation Techniques," "Plant Tissue Culture Techniques," and "Full-Light Seedling Raising Techniques," published multiple papers, obtained multiple national invention patents, and created output value and social benefits reaching several tens of billions. He saved every penny he earned to expand reproduction. It is precisely this snowballing spirit that enabled the spawn factory to achieve semi-mechanized production, fully electrified technology extension, and assets growing from 200 yuan at startup to more than 10 million yuan today. Chen Quanyong was not satisfied with everything before him. Despite his busy schedule, he took time to study at the School of Life Sciences of Anhui University for 3 years. These three years of study broadened his horizons. On the basis of the original spawn factory, he resolutely decided to invest another 20 million yuan to establish the Jin Tudi Agricultural Science Popularization Demonstration Garden. Now the park has built Anhui Province's largest plant tissue culture seedling base, agricultural technology training school, edible flower base, space raspberry fruit base, edible rose base, spawn production base, and space aromatic plant garden. The Jin Tudi breeding rabbit farm and special breeding projects will also be put into production in batches. The park has successively introduced more than 500 new varieties from home and abroad, and 12 technologies including organic ecological soilless cultivation and seedless watermelon grafting, and has put them into production demonstration in the agricultural park. In order to apply modern agricultural high-tech breeding techniques, Chen Quanyong also established a plant gene seedling laboratory. Through various efforts, he gained support from the national aerospace department, enabling his new varieties to successfully ride satellites into space multiple times, and established modern temperature-controlled greenhouses, taking the lead in China in establishing a relatively large professional aerospace breeding demonstration and experimental base. At the Jin Tudi aerospace breeding new variety national press conference held, nearly 150 aerospace breeding varieties were approved for market promotion. Today, achievements and honors have not turned Chen Quanyong's head. He will continue to climb along the path of science and technology, seeking greater results in agricultural high technology.