Two post-70s friends rekindle their green agriculture dream
Working in coal mines, learning auto repair... As teenagers, Wang Wenliang and Jia Wenqiang, who had just graduated from junior high school, left their hometown to start businesses elsewhere; leveling land, building greenhouses, growing mushrooms... In middle age, with their sights set on the promising prospects of green agriculture, they returned to the vast countryside to expand into new ventures.
On December 14, in Yiyuankou Village, Zhucaoying Town, Haigang District, cold wind blew through the air, yet inside several newly built warm greenhouses by the river bend, spring was in full bloom. More than ten hired "field nannies" were picking ripe shiitake mushrooms. "Look at how good the quality of our shiitake mushrooms is. A jin sells for more than 3 yuan, and customers are waiting for them. This young man here has come to buy shiitake mushrooms." Wang Xueliang, manager of the Tuoxin Family Farm in Haigang District, said happily, "Although the output is not high right now, the farm's shiitake mushrooms are already being sold on a regular basis to the Haiyang Vegetable Wholesale Market and the shiitake mushroom purchasing market in Yangmadianzi Township, Jianchang County, Liaoning. The market prospects are very good."
This was the second batch of shiitake mushrooms picked and sold by the farm, and it gave Wang Wenliang and his partner Jia Wenqiang a taste of success, but that success was hard-won.
After graduating from junior high school, Wang Wenliang from Banchangyu Village and Jia Wenqiang from Yiyuankou Village went out to start businesses. Neither of their trades had anything to do with agriculture: one was in auto repair, the other dealt with mining all day long. Although they were children who had come from rural areas, growing mushrooms was a first for both of them. When starting their business again, both were full of drive and put all their thought into it, leveling land and building greenhouses, but different trades are like different mountains. They had no idea about the many tricks involved in growing mushrooms, and the first batch they sold gave them a harsh welcome.
"The first batch of shiitake mushrooms was picked and sold starting on October 15 this year. Because it was our first time growing them, the quality was not very good and the price could not go up. 1,200 jin brought only a little more than 2,300 yuan. Although we saw money coming back for the first time, the quality problem remained like a burden on our minds." Talking about the situation at that time, Wang Wenliang still cannot let it go.
After that, improving the quality of the mushrooms became the farm's top priority. "If we do not understand, we learn. We hire people to help us do it." They hired a technician from Yangmadianzi Township, Jianchang County, Liaoning, at a high salary to handle technical guidance and training at the farm, and according to the technician's opinions and green product standards, they optimized and adjusted the greenhouse temperature and humidity and the nutritional ratio of the mushroom sticks. Before long, these measures gradually took effect. The mushrooms grew better day by day, and production at the farm gradually got on track.
Speaking of how the partnership to grow shiitake mushrooms began, Wang Xueliang, 40 this year, laughed: "It was really just a phone call from Jia Wenqiang. He told me about the state support policies and the good prospects for growing shiitake mushrooms. I was tempted and agreed right away."
"I heard about this at the town government. They said the state was supporting shiitake mushroom growing projects, that it had great prospects, and that you could give it a try. In mid-March this year, the town organized villagers from various villages who were interested to go to Pingquan, Chengde, to inspect. After returning, I thought it over several times and felt it was worth a try. So I contacted my classmate Wang Xueliang, and we hit it off immediately." In this way, 42-year-old Jia Wenqiang got in touch with Wang Wenliang, and the two classmates, who had long wanted to expand into new business, came together again.
They acted as soon as they decided. At the end of March this year, they surveyed and chose a site in Yiyuankou Village, transferred villagers' land, and prepared construction materials for the greenhouses. After that, the whole river bend came alive with the roar of excavators, loaders and trucks, leveling land and putting up greenhouses. By June 2, in just over two months, 6 high-standard, high-specification warm greenhouses, each 4 m high, 130 m long and 9 m wide, had risen from the ground, with a planting area of nearly 2 mu per greenhouse. Soon after, they purchased a full set of equipment for making mushroom sticks one after another: a grinder, a mixer, a stick-filling machine, a sealing machine, and a high-temperature sterilization boiler. For miscellaneous wood alone, they bought 200,000 yuan worth in one purchase. On June 30, they began producing mushroom sticks, 5,000 to 6,000 per day, putting them into the greenhouses as they were made without any delay. A total of 215,000 mushroom sticks were placed in the 6 greenhouses.
"Roughly calculated now, this project has 96,000 yuan in state support funds, mainly used for greenhouse construction materials; for the remaining large portion, we have already invested 1.5 million yuan." Wang Xueliang smacked his lips and said.
Standing on the leveled land by the river bend, Wang Xueliang was full of confidence: "Shiitake mushrooms are high in protein, low in fat, and rich in various amino acids and vitamins. They are very popular in the market. Next year we want to build several more greenhouses and expand the scale of production. In addition, we also plan to establish a cooperative to drive villagers to do it together, with unified management, purchasing and sales. If output grows even more, we intend to do deep processing of the products and use the Internet for sales, so that the products can travel all over the country."