Zhang Xuxia, a female college graduate village official in Wenxi, Shanxi: Developing the mushroom industry to lead villagers to increase income and become wealthy
On November 8, during the peak marketing season for greenhouse mushrooms in Xiangyangzhuang Village, Guojiazhuang Town, Wenxi County, villagers were picking fresh mushrooms in the greenhouses, preparing to ship them to markets elsewhere. Du Liuxia, a woman in the village, said with emotion: "The women in our village can earn good money growing mushrooms without leaving home, thanks to Zhang Xuxia, a female college graduate village official and village Party branch secretary, who pointed the way for us."
In September 2009, Zhang Xuxia, as a college graduate village official, was assigned to Xiangyangzhuang Village, Guojiazhuang Town, Wenxi County, to serve as assistant to the village committee director. In 2013, she was elected secretary of the Xiangyangzhuang Village Party branch.
As a college graduate village official and village Party branch secretary, Zhang Xuxia loves rural work and loves her villagers even more. In practice, she realized that a village official is a link: upward, connecting with Party committees and governments at all levels; downward, dealing directly with villagers. A village's stability and harmony, economic development, and farmers' income growth are all inseparable from the work of village officials. As a college graduate village official, Zhang Xuxia believes that only by bending down to contribute one's strength and youth to rural construction and harmonious development can such goals be achieved faster and better through the path of entrepreneurship. That is what she said, and that is what she did.
Xiangyangzhuang Village, Guojiazhuang, Wenxi County, is a mushroom-growing village known throughout the county. For many years, villagers grew mushrooms in abandoned old cave dwellings, relying on traditional edible fungus cultivation techniques, developing slowly and earning relatively low incomes. In order to change this traditional cultivation technique, Zhang Xuxia had many face-to-face conversations with Party members and representatives of the masses, and visited farming households one by one. After in-depth investigation, she proposed the idea of developing greenhouse mushrooms and took the initiative to discuss and exchange views with village officials and Party members. Her idea won everyone's recognition and support. Zhang Xuxia and village committee director Wang Huimin took village officials, Party member representatives, and villager representatives to Yanhu, Yongji, and other counties and cities for study visits, which broadened everyone's horizons, emancipated their thinking, helped them learn new techniques for growing greenhouse mushrooms, and dispelled the masses' concerns.
In order to promote the scaled and industrialized development of edible fungus cultivation in Xiangyangzhuang Village and mobilize the villagers' enthusiasm, Zhang Xuxia and village officials did everything possible to overcome the difficulties and problems one by one in greenhouse mushroom cultivation.
To develop greenhouse mushrooms on a scaled basis, the area had to be expanded, and expanding the area required using farmers' land. For farmers, land is their lifeblood, so transferring land required doing the farmers' ideological work well. Zhang Xuxia and village officials visited and held discussions with households one by one, explaining in detail and patiently the advantages and benefits of greenhouse cultivation, and successfully transferred 100 mu of land.
Building mushroom greenhouses required improving the corresponding infrastructure and a large amount of capital investment. Zhang Xuxia and village officials actively contacted financial institutions to provide loans to villagers, mobilized villagers to invest actively, and helped villagers solve the problem of lacking funds. During the greenhouse construction process, she and village committee director Wang Huimin went many times to Yuncheng, Xinjiang, and other places to purchase materials such as steel, anti-drip film, straw curtains, and bamboo poles. These materials were finally selected after repeated comparisons of material quality and price. Newly purchased equipment included bagging machines, mixing machines, and crushers, enabling villagers to achieve mechanization in the process of growing greenhouse mushrooms, saving both labor and time.
In leading villagers to develop greenhouse mushrooms, Zhang Xuxia implemented unified planning, scientific management, adopted advanced techniques, and hired professional technical personnel to provide on-site guidance from time to time. This greatly increased the spawn-running rate, raising the success rate from the original 60% to 90%. This year, Xiangyangzhuang Village developed a total of 18 mushroom greenhouses, increasing villagers' income by more than 500,000 yuan.
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Party proposed the grand goal of "doubling urban and rural residents' income by 2020 compared with 2010." Zhang Xuxia felt that the burden on her shoulders was heavier and her responsibility greater. She and village officials drew up a grand blueprint for Xiangyangzhuang Village's "13th Five-Year Plan" development, using 3 years to double the scale of villagers' greenhouse mushroom cultivation, registering a trademark for the mushrooms grown in the village, carrying out deep processing, further making the edible fungus industry bigger and stronger, and leading villagers to increase income, become wealthy, and strive for a moderately prosperous life.