Edible Mushrooms Grown in Idle Tobacco Curing Barns Bring Good Returns to Tobacco Farmers in Shanghang, Fujian

Shanghang County in Fujian Province is one of the key counties for flue-cured tobacco production nationwide, with over a thousand intensive flue-cured tobacco curing barns built and several thousand curing rooms, but the tobacco curing period only lasts four months from May to August, leaving them idle for the remaining eight months with low utilization rates. To improve the utilization rate of the curing barns and maximize the benefits of construction investment, the Sanfeng Tobacco Farmers' Cooperative in Lufeng She Ethnic Township, Shanghang County began trials in the autumn and winter of 2014, using idle intensive curing barns during the off-period to grow wood ear mushrooms and oyster mushrooms, achieving initial success and good returns. To improve the yield and benefits of cultivating edible fungi in curing barns, the Sanfeng Tobacco Farmers' Cooperative started in July this year to make mushroom bags, purchase spawn, and cultivate mushroom sticks, and by October had moved them into the curing barns ready for fruiting. Recently, visiting the mushroom yard, one could see rows upon rows of mushroom bags neatly and densely stacked inside the curing barns, each row of bags already covered with layer upon layer, cluster upon cluster of uniform mushroom fruiting bodies, including pure white small oyster mushrooms and brown tea tree mushrooms. According to Zhang Shoulu, the technical director of the mushroom yard, each curing barn can hold over 4,000 bags of edible fungi arranged in rows. With seven curing barns in the entire yard, cultivating wood ear mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and tea tree mushrooms totaling over 30,000 bags, it is expected to produce over 27,000 jin of mushrooms, generating an output value of 54,000 yuan and achieving a profit of over 30,000 yuan (about one yuan per bag on average). Lufeng Township has over 660 curing barns in total. If all were used for cultivating edible fungi, over 2.6 million bags could be grown, and at one yuan profit per bag, this could increase income by over 2.6 million yuan.