Yuexi maker youth opens up a path to prosperity for villagers

"How many seasons a year can the wood ear mushrooms at the base be grown? How long is the fruiting cycle?" Recently, the members of the "two committees" of Yushu Village, Wenquan Town, Yuexi County, made a special trip by car to the mulberry twig black wood ear mushroom base in Chayuan Group, Guanhe Village, Laibang Town, to learn the "cultivation secrets" of mulberry twig black wood ear mushrooms from Wu Songqing, the person in charge of the base. Not only within Yuexi County, but this black wood ear mushroom base has also attracted outside merchants from Fuyang, Bozhou and other places to come and study cultivation experience.

At the mulberry twig black wood ear mushroom base, the author saw rows of black wood ear mushroom logs laid out in a line, with black wood ear mushrooms poking out their little heads one by one, growing very promisingly, and Wu Songqing, a post-85s "maker," was managing the mushroom logs. Wu Songqing is a typical rural youth "maker." After graduating from Anhui University of Finance and Economics in 2008, he worked at an enterprise in Yangzhou, but working life in a big city was not as comfortable as he had imagined. In 2012, by a chance opportunity, through investigation and study Wu Songqing discovered that edible fungus cultivation was a good path to prosperity, and Laibang Town in Yuexi County, which enjoys the reputation of "Anhui's No. 1 Silkworm and Mulberry Town," had 10,000 mu of mulberry fields that would produce large amounts of mulberry twigs, and these uniquely favorable conditions inspired his idea to return home and start a business. In 2013, Wu Songqing took advantage of the policy tailwind of the "College Student Return Project" introduced by his hometown and registered and established Yuexi Litai Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., transferring more than 50 mu of land from local people, recycling mulberry twigs discarded by local people after sericulture at a price of 30 yuan per 100 jin as a culture medium for growing edible fungi, and in the first batch cultivated 200,000 logs of mulberry twig black wood ear mushrooms. After a year of research and development, he harvested more than 20,000 jin of high-quality black wood ear mushrooms, sold at 60 yuan per jin, with market demand exceeding supply.

It is understood that at present Wu Songqing's mulberry twig black wood ear mushroom base has 150,000 fungus logs, planted in two batches, and the first batch of 70,000 logs can yield a profit of 3 yuan per log. According to Wu Songqing, in the next step, while doing a good job in mulberry twig wood ear mushroom cultivation, he plans to grow shiitake mushrooms to increase returns. At the same time, the company will adopt the form of "company + farmers," select 10 poor households, distribute 200 logs of spawn to each household, recycle the mushrooms after they mature, and drive surrounding poor households to prosper.

Now, the scale of this black wood ear mushroom base is continuously expanding, and mulberry twig black wood ear mushrooms sell very well. In addition to traditional sales channels, e-commerce has also opened up a broad market for them. From January to May this year, sales reached 300,000 yuan, and during the "May Day" short holiday alone, 80,000 yuan was sold. "While running e-commerce well, I also plan to connect with vegetable markets in Hefei and Wuhan, carry out cooperation with chain brands such as Anhui Laoxiangji, so that Yuexi's specialty products can truly go out and become Yuexi's specialty brand," Wu Songqing said in an introduction.

"The countryside has a broad stage, and moreover we have knowledge and technology in our hands, and even deep in the mountains we can still find a piece of sky to create for ourselves." With these words, Wu Songqing expressed the aspirations of many college graduates who return home to start businesses.