Shanxi's female village official makes a name for herself in mushroom cultivation
Original title: Zhang Xuxia, a female college-graduate village official in Wenxi, Shanxi: Developing the mushroom industry to lead villagers in increasing income and becoming better off
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 from the village, said with emotion: "The women in our village can earn good money without leaving home just by growing mushrooms, thanks to Zhang Xuxia, the 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 came to realize that a village official is a link, connecting with Party committees and governments at all levels above and dealing directly with villagers below. 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 devote one's 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 in Guojiazhuang, Wenxi County, is a mushroom-growing village famous 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 these traditional cultivation techniques, Zhang Xuxia held face-to-face talks with Party members and representatives of the masses many times and visited farming households one by one. After in-depth investigation, she put forward 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 tours, which broadened everyone's horizons, emancipated their thinking, helped them learn new techniques for growing greenhouse mushrooms, and dispelled the villagers' concerns.
In order to make edible fungus cultivation in Xiangyangzhuang Village develop on a large scale and along industrialized lines and to mobilize the villagers' enthusiasm, Zhang Xuxia and the village officials did everything possible to overcome one difficulty and problem after another in greenhouse mushroom cultivation.
To develop greenhouse mushrooms on a large scale, the area had to be expanded, and expanding the area meant occupying farmers' land. For farmers, land is their lifeline, so transferring land required doing the farmers' ideological work well. Zhang Xuxia and the village officials visited and held discussions with households one by one, explaining in careful detail 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 the 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, drip-free film, straw curtains and bamboo poles. These materials were finally selected only after repeated comparisons of material quality and price. Newly purchased equipment included bagging machines, material mixers 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 and scientific management, adopted advanced techniques, and hired professional technicians 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 Communist Party of China put forward 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 the village officials drew up a grand blueprint for Xiangyangzhuang Village's development during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period: use 3 years to double the scale of villagers' greenhouse mushroom cultivation, register a trademark for the mushrooms grown in the village, carry out deep processing, further expand and strengthen the edible fungus industry, and lead villagers in increasing income, becoming better off and achieving moderate prosperity.