Shiitake mushroom cultivation in Jiaokou County helps farmers increase income: grow one greenhouse of shiitake mushrooms, lift one family out of poverty

Since the battle against poverty began, Jiaokou County has relied on its unique climate advantages, implemented poverty alleviation policies, and guided poor households to cultivate high-value summer mushrooms, achieving the excellent results of "grow one greenhouse of shiitake mushrooms, lift one family out of poverty" and escaping poverty in the same year of planting.

An average altitude of 1200 m and an average annual temperature of 6.7°C allow shiitake mushrooms in Jiaokou County to fruit during the golden market period from June to August. Seizing this seasonal advantage, the county conducted inspections in many places and repeated demonstrations before listing the edible fungi industry as one of its key development projects. At present, it has basically established three major development systems: a production organization system, a technical service system and a market circulation system.

Liang Linyuan of Yangye Village, Taohongpo Town, is a registered poor household. With the government's guidance and support, 61-year-old Liang Linyuan tried growing one greenhouse of shiitake mushrooms last year and sold them for 12,000 yuan, lifting his whole family out of poverty that same year. This year, Liang Linyuan took out a bank loan of 100,000 yuan and plans to further expand the planting scale. Liang Linyuan's son Liang Jianjun, who worked in the transport industry, saw his father and other capable people around him benefit from shiitake mushroom cultivation, so he also gave up the transport industry he had been in for many years, raised part of the funds himself, and switched to shiitake mushroom cultivation. Xijiaozi Village is one of the 46 overall poverty-stricken villages in Jiaokou County. Last year, it achieved overall poverty alleviation by relying on shiitake mushroom cultivation. This year, with the support of government policy funds, all the poor households in the village, 131 households and 344 people, joined together to establish the Huizemin Cooperative, achieving large-scale cultivation. The villagers work near their homes on the one hand and participate in cooperative dividends on the other, further consolidating the results of poverty alleviation.

Last year, 1,500 poor households in Jiaokou County directly participated in shiitake mushroom cultivation, and 5 villages including Shanshenyu, Junzhuang and Xijiaozi achieved whole-village poverty alleviation through developing the edible fungi industry; this year, 7 poor villages including Qiaoshang, Shangjiagou and Zhangjialing have successively launched the edible fungi cultivation industry. At present, the county has cultivated 3 leading stick-making enterprises, 2 processing and sales enterprises, 45 specialized cooperatives, 4 edible fungi demonstration townships and towns with more than 2 million sticks, and 40 edible fungi cultivation villages, of which 20 villages have basically formed an edible fungi industrial pattern of "one village, one product, one entity."

At present, Jiaokou County's shiitake mushroom industry is connected and operating with 14 marketing outlets inside and outside the province, including Taiyuan, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Xi'an and Shenzhen, and the products can be exported to many countries such as the United States, Japan and Canada. From June to August 2016, Jiaokou County's summer shiitake mushrooms had strong production and sales, with output exceeding 18 million jin, and the output value in three months was nearly 100 million yuan.

The county will further expand a series of varieties such as black fungus and medicinal fungi, and solidly make the edible fungi industry bigger, stronger, better and more refined, striving to exceed 50 million sticks in edible fungi cultivation scale by the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan," drive more than 10,000 farming households, and increase each household's income by 20,000 yuan on average. By then, the small shiitake mushroom will not only be a uniquely charming geographical indication brand, but also a beautiful calling card for external publicity. (Reporter Luo Li, Correspondent Zhang Yanli)

Luliang Daily