He planted "true gold mushrooms" on the Great Rear Mountain

In October on the plateau beyond the Great Wall, nights in the Rear Mountain area are already cold enough to freeze. But stepping into the edible mushroom base production greenhouse in Gedigai Village, Haolaishan Township, Wuchuan County, one finds a bustling production scene: all kinds of mushrooms are growing vigorously, and the migrant workers picking, boxing and carrying mushrooms are also very busy.

For more than three years, Gedigai, a whole-village advancement poverty alleviation village, has built 250 greenhouses and invested in building a production line with an annual output of 1.5 million mushroom sticks. In 2014, the Gedigai edible mushroom planting base alone achieved a profit of 2.39 million yuan, and the more than 150 migrant workers employed at the edible mushroom base had an average annual income of about 40,000 yuan.

Behind this, one person deserves great credit. He is Gao Ruicai, a science and technology commissioner of Hohhot. He is needed to cultivate the mushrooms, he is consulted when problems arise, and the harvest of shiitake mushrooms is inseparable from him. Gao Ruicai is busy like a spinning top from morning till night.

Three years ago, engaging in edible mushroom production in the cold high-altitude Rear Mountain area was still something new, and Gao Ruicai was determined to make this industry a "true gold mushroom" for farmers to get rich. He threw himself into the base, eating and living in a crude work shed; he guided the construction of greenhouses, the layout of workshops and the installation and debugging of equipment, producing while building. In addition, since the project had just been implemented and there was no technician, he did most of the work alone, sometimes working twelve or thirteen hours a day. At the end of November 2012, the main project of the base was completed, trial production began in early December, and formal production began in February 2013.

For more than half a year, Gao Ruicai had not rested for a single day. During the Spring Festival, on the third day of the first lunar month, he hurried to the base to pay New Year's respects to his precious shiitake mushrooms. Although he had grown thinner, seeing different varieties of mushrooms growing sturdily made his heart sweeter than drinking honey.

Gao Ruicai eats, lives and works at the base all year round; the edible mushroom greenhouse is his "home." His wife and son tried to persuade him, but he said cheerfully: "I was born to endure hardship. Once I enter the greenhouse, my spirits multiply and I have endless strength all over." Instead, his wife and son were persuaded by him to come to the Wuchuan base and join his poverty alleviation cause.

With auxiliary equipment incomplete, Gao Ruicai broke through many technical bottlenecks and solved many production problems. In May 2013, the first batch of mushrooms came out of the greenhouses. Apart from reserving 20 greenhouses for cultivating mushroom spawn, the remaining 80 greenhouses fully achieved the highest output rate originally designed. According to estimates, each greenhouse (0.5 mu) reached an average output of 7,500 kg. With the first battle won, Gao Ruicai wept tears of joy. The cold Rear Mountain area could finally produce edible mushrooms, and the mushrooms produced were of superior quality and delicious taste.

Growing edible mushrooms requires a high level of technology. In edible mushroom production, Gao Ruicai strengthened management, personally handled matters and gave on-site guidance, while also conducting technical training for villagers. Gao Ruicai was appointed by Wuchuan County as the county's technical director of edible mushroom planting. He led 8 university students in practice and also trained villagers more than 500 person-times. At present, every base in the county has agricultural technicians.

Although Gao Ruicai is nearly sixty years old, he has always loved learning and researching. Wuchuan County has a high altitude and a cool climate. He developed a new edible mushroom variety, the Daqingshan wild domesticated mushroom project, which is expected to be successfully cultivated this year. He has mastered advanced intelligent liquid spawn technology and has already applied it in the edible mushroom production process, increasing edible mushroom output. After a tiring day, he always studies for a while in the evening. "People who do technical work must constantly study and recharge. Without learning, you will not be able to keep up with the rapidly developing situation," he said.

After more than three years of arduous entrepreneurship, the edible mushrooms from the Gedigai Village edible mushroom production base have obtained the "Saishang Menggu" trademark registration and QS certification, and the edible mushrooms produced have been snapped up by merchants from Fujian, Dalian, Beijing, Tianjin and other places who came to purchase on site. Merchants from Dalian and Fujian also want to sign long-term supply contracts with the base.

The villagers who benefited affectionately call Gao Ruicai "able man Gao." "In the past, we relied on the weather to farm dry slope land, and income was not guaranteed. Now working at the base brings an annual income of 40,000 to 50,000 yuan, and there are dividends at the end of the year. Life is getting more and more promising," said Xu Wenfeng, a villager of Gedigai Village. In 2014, the Gedigai Village edible mushroom base took out 200,000 yuan and distributed dividends to more than 400 villagers from 130 households in the whole village, including 92 elderly, weak, sick and disabled people and 46 poor university students.

Today, Gao Ruicai is the county's technical director of edible mushrooms. He envisions bringing Wuchuan's mushrooms to market and exporting them abroad. With a sincere heart, he strives to write well the article on industrial poverty alleviation.