Veteran Zhang Ying of Tunchang Grows Mushrooms to Help Fellow Villagers Get Rich
"Three greenhouses can earn ten thousand yuan a month, and this is just the beginning." This morning in Wushipo Village, Tunchang, at a Xiuzhen mushroom (Pleurotus geesteranus) cultivation base beneath a dense rubber forest, Zhang Ying, a post-80s veteran, did the math for a reporter.
In the blue cultivation greenhouse beside him, carefully tended mushroom bags were neatly arranged, with white Xiuzhen mushrooms on both sides of each bag straining to push their way out.
In the workroom, more than 10 workers were racing against the clock to assemble mushroom bags.
It is these Xiuzhen mushrooms in the cultivation greenhouse that have brought Zhang Ying hope of prosperity.
Zhang Ying, born in 1981, served in the military for 16 years. After being discharged last December, he returned to his hometown of Wushipo Village, Wupo Town, Tunchang County, preparing to start a business and get rich, and to help his fellow villagers get rich along with him.
On the advice of mushroom cultivation technicians, Zhang Ying and his wife Chen Hua began preparing to grow Taiwan Xiuzhen mushrooms. Using his veteran resettlement allowance and a sum of borrowed money, Zhang Ying invested nearly 300,000 yuan to build a workshop of more than 300 sq m including a workroom, sterilization room and breeding room, plus 3 greenhouses for growing Xiuzhen mushrooms. In May this year, the workshop was completed, and production began in June. Zhang Ying then established the Sanfeng Edible Fungi Professional Cooperative, with 5 members.
It is understood that a 60 sq m greenhouse can grow 2,000 bags of Xiuzhen mushrooms. Each bag, from filling with wood chips to inoculating with spawn and entering the cultivation greenhouse, costs about 8 yuan. After 25 days of growing, picking can begin. After picking, the mushrooms grow again in cycles, and each bag can be picked for 4 months. From the start of picking to the end of all picking, a single bag can produce about 3.2 jin of Xiuzhen mushrooms.
Because mature Xiuzhen mushrooms must be picked once every 4 hours, Zhang Ying and Chen Hua can only rest in shifts, picking continuously.
From breeding their own spawn, sterilizing, growing and picking, Zhang Ying and Chen Hua are always incredibly busy through the whole process, yet the two remain cheerful throughout, because "every mushroom that pops up in the greenhouse is money."
"These are not a worry to sell at all. Right now they are basically sold within Tunchang County, generally through wholesale channels, working out to 7 yuan per jin," Chen Hua said.
After bagging, sterilization and disinfection, breeding and entering the greenhouse, growing Xiuzhen mushrooms in one greenhouse often takes 15 days, and the bagging process in particular must be done against the clock. Short-handed, Zhang Ying and Chen Hua began hiring villagers to work.
Chen Hua explained that each worker can earn 10 yuan per hour, works 10 hours a day, and can work an average of 6 days a month, earning 600 yuan a month in pocket money.
"When we have free time and no farm work to do, we can come and work, and the wages are settled the same day," villager Huang Xiulan, who was working, told the reporter happily.
"Many villagers are eager to try growing Xiuzhen mushrooms, but they are afraid of the risk. If the government could provide support, probably many villagers would start growing them. At present, the villagers think doing odd jobs is quite good too, as it doesn't interfere with farm work and they can earn some pocket money," said Lin Zhiwen, Party branch secretary of Wushipo Village.
According to Zhang Ying, they are expanding their cultivation greenhouses and have now increased to 5. He plans to expand to 10 greenhouses within a month and to bring poor households in the village together to grow Xiuzhen mushrooms in greenhouses.