Wangcang "Wood Ear Mushroom Brother" Returns Home to Build a Family Farm and Gets Rich

Li Jie is turning over wood ear mushroom logs.

He began learning to grow wood ear mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms in 2014; in 2015 he established a family farm and expanded the planting scale, and that year's net profit reached more than 600,000 yuan; this year he is striving for an income of 1 million yuan!

On May 6, during an interview in Lühua Village, Yanzai Township, Wangcang County, Guangyuan City, the reporter saw that Li Jie, a villager of Group 4 of the village known by local villagers as "Wood Ear Mushroom Brother," began learning to grow wood ear mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms in 2014 and has set this year's net income target at 1 million yuan, taking three impressive steps toward prosperity in just three years.

Li Jie, 41, said that although he had been working away from home from 2004 to 2012, he had always been thinking about how to use his hometown's abundant mountain forest and land resources to develop a profitable industry project.

After investigation and consultation, in February 2014 he made up his mind to focus on developing wood ear mushroom and shiitake mushroom cultivation in his hometown. "At that time I had not yet learned much planting technology, and the income could only cover costs. Later, with the guidance and help of agricultural technicians in Yanzai Township, I mastered more practical planting techniques," he said. "That year I raised 300,000 yuan, rented more than 20 mu of land from surrounding farmers, and planted 10,000 sticks of wood ear mushrooms and 118,000 sticks of shiitake mushrooms."

Li Jie said that in the process of developing the planting industry, he learned that the central government had issued policies encouraging and supporting the transfer of contracted land to specialized large households, family farms, and farmers' cooperatives in order to develop various forms of appropriately scaled operations, so he discussed with his wife and decided to prepare to build his own family farm. "The more I work, the more confident I become, and I am full of confidence in the market prospects for scaled development of specialty planting."

In 2015, with the support of relevant departments, with himself as farm owner and his parents and wife as the farm's main employees, Li Jie successfully established the Wangcang County Yanzai Zhibo Family Farm and began realizing his dream of moderate prosperity in the remote mountain township. "From 2014 to now, 28 shiitake mushroom greenhouses have been built one after another," he said. "In 2015, the farm planted 15,000 sticks of wood ear mushrooms and 120,000 sticks of shiitake mushrooms, with gross income of 4 million yuan and net profit already reaching more than 600,000 yuan!"

"At present the farm has 4 regular migrant workers, with a monthly wage of about 2,000 yuan; it also often hires villagers from whom land is rented for temporary work, with a daily wage of about 80 yuan," Li Jie said. "This year, in addition to planting 15,000 sticks of wood ear mushrooms and 200,000 sticks of shiitake mushrooms, we will also plant more than 30 mu of the Chinese medicinal herb bletilla, more than 10 mu of Polyporus umbellatus, and 4 mu of Gastrodia elata, striving to reach an income of 1 million yuan."

"Now the Party's policies are good, and departments at all levels are trying to help us escape poverty and become prosperous. Across the county alone, more than 300 family farms have already been developed. Everyone has 100 percent confidence in achieving moderate prosperity in all respects!" Li Jie said happily to the reporter while busy in the planting garden.