Pic story: villagers shake off poverty by cultivating mushroom in China's Anhui

Deng Wei (C) transports mushroom with other villagers at the mushroom cultivation base in Xinji Village of Wuhe County, east China's Anhui Province, May 7, 2019. Deng Wei, 41, and his wife Ou Mingyan, 38, villagers of Xinji Village of Wuhe County, have successfully shaken off poverty after years of hard work by cultivating mushroom (Agaricus bisporus). The family plunged into poverty in 2012 when Deng lost his right arm in a traffic accident during a cargo transportation. Without source of income, Deng's family was registered as a poverty-stricken household in 2014. But Deng and his wife did not give up striving for better life. In 2017, he came back to his hometown to start mushroom cultivation business with the help from the local authority and his friends. He set up a cooperative and the annual output value reached 3 million yuan (442,772 U.S. dollars) after two-year operation. He also helped others by creating job opportunities for over 40 poverty-stricken households from neighboring villages. (Xinhua/Liu Junxi)