Mushroom farming supports the dream of starting a business and getting rich

More than 20 women were busily working in the greenhouse, some picking mushrooms, some washing mushrooms, some loading and shipping mushrooms... This was the scene the author recently saw at the Shili Xiangzhang mushroom industry base in Qiaobei Village, Aoxi Town, Le'an County, Jiangxi Province.

Upon learning that someone had come to interview her, Xu Ying, wearing an apron and rain boots, hurried out of the mushroom shed. "Xu Ying is truly our local 'heroine.' She is not only a deputy to the provincial people's congress, but also a national rural women's 'Double Learn, Double Compare' expert and vice president of the city women entrepreneurs association," the head of the county sericulture bureau accompanying the interview said excitedly.

Xu Ying, 51 this year, is the women's director and family planning officer of the Qiaobei Village Committee. Qiaobei Village is located on the outskirts of the city, and many villagers have lost their land. In order to help the villagers find a path to prosperity, she carefully conducted market research and found that button mushrooms were in short supply and had considerable economic returns. In 2007, she took the lead in trial-planting button mushrooms and achieved success. She then further expanded the planting scale, invested 490,000 yuan, built more than 10 mushroom greenhouses, and planted 15,000 sq m of button mushrooms.

"Last year the mushroom market was strong, averaging 9 yuan per kg. My mushroom output reached more than 70,000 kg, with an annual output value of more than 600,000 yuan and a net profit of about 150,000 yuan." Talking about last year's harvest, Xu Ying smiled happily.

"Being rich alone does not count as being rich; only when all the villagers are rich is it truly rich." After seeing Xu Ying become wealthy by growing mushrooms, many villagers came to her for advice. Xu Ying taught everyone button mushroom cultivation techniques without reservation, leading the villagers to grow mushrooms together and become wealthy.

In order to lead more people to prosperity, with the help of relevant county departments, Xu Ying founded a mushroom cultivation vocational training school, providing free mushroom cultivation training for farmers. She also led the establishment of the Shili Xiangzhang Mushroom Professional Cooperative and set up a mushroom industry base in Qiaobei Village, adopting the model of "industry association (professional cooperative) + base + farmers," leading more than 50 farming households to cultivate more than 100,000 sq m of mushrooms, with an average net income of more than 30,000 yuan per mushroom-growing household.

When mentioning Xu Ying, Hu Huanxi, a villager from Pingbei Village, Wanchong Town, was full of gratitude: "In the past, my family mainly relied on farming for a living, and life was tight. In 2009, with Xu Ying's help and guidance, I began growing mushrooms, and that year I earned 40,000 yuan. Now my family has built 3 mushroom greenhouses, with a planting area of more than 3,000 sq m and an annual net income of 60,000 to 70,000 yuan. Life is getting better and better!"

While developing the mushroom industry, Xu Ying also vigorously developed a circular economy, using mushroom waste to grow mulberry for sericulture and using mulberry branches as raw material for mushroom cultivation, improving comprehensive benefits. At present, she grows 30 mu of mulberry for sericulture, with an annual output value of 80,000 yuan; she cultivates 150,000 bags of wood ear mushrooms, with an annual output value of more than 700,000 yuan.

Talking about future development plans, Xu Ying pointed to a large area of land that had just been leveled and introduced it: "This year I plan to invest 2 million yuan to build 6 standardized mushroom greenhouses, expand the planting scale of mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms, and build another spawn factory and a ready-to-eat mushroom processing factory, truly achieving integrated production from breeding, planting, and processing, greatly improving comprehensive benefits, promoting industrial development and upgrading, and leading more farmers to prosperity and a moderately prosperous life."