How did Yang Fuyan make a success of button mushroom cultivation?

Mushroom farmers are sorting button mushrooms

I had long heard that Yang Fuyan, a farmer from Xiaoyi City, raised more than 3 million yuan to establish the city's first button mushroom production base. Seeing is believing, so how well has Yang Fuyan really mastered his "button mushroom craft"?

In golden October, the reporter made a special trip to interview Yang Fuyan, founder of the Shengda Edible Fungi Industry Demonstration Zone in Shangtujing Village, Dui Town, Xiaoyi City.

Arriving at the base, what came into view first were rows of neatly arranged standardized mushroom houses. Outside, people were coming and going; inside, the aroma of mushrooms filled the air, and the white, round button mushrooms were growing vigorously.

Button mushrooms contain relatively high amounts of mannose, trehalose and various amino acids. They are delicious and nutritious, making them one of the edible fungi people enjoy most. Yang Fuyan recognized the broad market prospects for growing button mushrooms and, after visiting Shandong, Fujian and other places to study, decided to grow them.

In 2013, with the support of the village "two committees," he established the Shengda Button Mushroom Planting Professional Cooperative. Led by the cooperative and with villagers joining voluntarily by buying shares, they built 12 large mushroom houses with 24 six-tier three-dimensional shelves, covering more than 7,000 sq m, on the site of an abandoned brick factory in his hometown of Shangtujing Village to develop the edible fungi industry.

After more than two years of development, the base's button mushroom cultivation has embarked on a green, circular development path of large-scale development and scientific management. Because of the three-dimensional growing model, the actual button mushroom growing area has reached 24,000 sq m. Through grading and sorting of the products, button mushrooms are sold as far away as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Europe, Japan and other places, while second-grade products, after primary processing, are sold to canneries in various places.

Today, more than 30 villagers work long-term at the base, and seasonal workers number as many as 100 or more. They include not only the elderly and women, but also quite a few young people. In addition to receiving daily wages, they can also take care of their own farm work during busy agricultural seasons.

What is even more encouraging is that while vigorously developing button mushroom cultivation, Yang Fuyan has not forgotten to lead mushroom farmers to join forces and venture into the market, blazing a new path for local farmers to make their fortunes. Villager Zhang Wenjun said: "I heard Yang Fuyan earns a considerable income from growing button mushrooms, so this spring I also invested more than 50,000 yuan and used an old house to grow button mushrooms in 4 rooms. I should see returns this winter." Under Yang Fuyan's influence, villagers' enthusiasm for growing button mushrooms has soared, and the whole town already has 5 large button mushroom growers.

Talking about his own "button mushroom cultivation craft," Yang Fuyan said: "Button mushrooms are cultivated in a natural, pollution-free environment. They are a standard green food with good economic returns. One planting allows harvesting in both autumn and spring, with about 6 flushes per harvest season. The compost is all fermented material made from corn cobs and cow dung, mainly used as farmyard manure. By next summer, after the spring mushrooms are harvested, the spent material can be removed and sold to farmers growing in greenhouses, achieving green circular development..."

People often say that fellow traders are enemies, but Yang Fuyan does not think so. He hopes more people in Xiaoyi will grow mushrooms together with him and form a scale-development effect. On the one hand, this can greatly promote employment for local rural surplus labor; on the other hand, with scale development, sales channels are easier to open up.

Next, Yang Fuyan plans to build a comprehensive enterprise integrating edible fungi cultivation substrate supply, edible fungi cultivation, spawn supply, technical guidance, edible fungi sales and cold-chain distribution, and to set up a more convenient and efficient trading platform to provide convenience for the development of the edible fungi industry in Xiaoyi and even surrounding counties and cities.