Ideas and Countermeasures for Promoting the Industrialized Operation of Edible Fungi
Fan Shenhua, Director of the Agriculture Bureau of Bazhong City, Sichuan Province, led a municipal bureau research team on a special investigation of edible fungi in Tongjiang County. Over two days, the research team successively visited 5 villages and 12 she in Tiechang Township, Nuosuihe Town, and Nuojiang Town of Tongjiang County, visited 27 large planting households, 2 professional cooperatives, the processing workshops of leading enterprises, and the operating market, and held discussions with large households, members of professional cooperatives, grassroots cadres, and leading enterprises to jointly explore the industrialized operation of edible fungi.
I. Development Status
The edible fungi products of Tongjiang mainly consist of silver ear fungus, wood ear fungus, and shiitake mushrooms, which are produced and cultivated in large quantities, along with small quantities of oyster mushrooms, button mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, straw mushrooms, Gastrodia elata, reishi mushrooms, and more than 10 types of wild fungi.
(1) Cultivation scale. In 2006, the county inoculated 350,000 bottles of log-cultivated silver ear fungus, 250,000 bottles of log-cultivated wood ear fungus, and 250,000 bottles of log-cultivated shiitake mushrooms, with 8 million bags of bag-cultivated shiitake mushrooms and 4 million bags of vegetable-type edible fungi. The total output of edible fungi reached 5,467 tons (of which: 2,467 tons of dried products of the "two ear fungi and one mushroom," and 3,000 tons of fresh vegetable-type products), and the total income of farmers from selling products was 95 million yuan.
In 2007, the county inoculated 380,000 bottles of log-cultivated silver ear fungus, 300,000 bottles of wood ear fungus, and 500,000 bottles of shiitake mushrooms, with 11.5 million bottles of bag-cultivated shiitake mushrooms and 2 million bags of vegetable-type edible fungi, and planned to plant 500 mu of paddy-field vegetable mushrooms. The total output of edible fungi can reach 6,950 tons (of which: 4,450 tons of dried products of the "two ear fungi and one mushroom," 1,500 tons of fresh vegetable-type products, and 1,000 tons of paddy-field mushrooms), and the total income of farmers from @#@136@#@ products can reach 130 million yuan.
(2) Specialized bases. Tongjiang County has planned a total of 18 edible fungus production base townships, including 5 silver ear fungus base townships, 3 wood ear fungus base townships, 8 shiitake mushroom base townships, and 2 other edible fungus base townships. The county has 70 edible fungus base villages, 20,000 producing households, an industry coverage rate of 21%, and 2,500 specialized large households. Among them: 20 "one village, one product" base villages, and the output of base villages accounts for 78% of the county's total production.
(3) Leading enterprises. There are 6 enterprises engaged in the development and operation of the edible fungus industry in Tongjiang County, including Tongjiang Silver Ear Fungus Group Co., Ltd., Tongjiang Shanbawang Wild Food Co., Ltd., and Tongjiang County Spawn Company. Among them: Tongjiang Silver Ear Fungus Group Co., Ltd. and Shanbawang Wild Food Co., Ltd. are municipal-level leading enterprises, and Tongjiang Silver Ear Fungus Group Co., Ltd. is a provincial-level leading enterprise.
Among the leading enterprises, Tongjiang Shanbawang Wild Food Co., Ltd. has a relatively large operating scale. The company was founded in 1998, with annual sales revenue of 52 million yuan. The company has 8 operating branches including supermarkets, distribution centers, and processing plants, and more than 20 franchise joint distributors.
(4) Specialized cooperative organizations: The county has established 13 specialized cooperative organizations, including 5 edible fungus professional cooperatives, 3 professional associations, and 5 share-based cooperative operating entities. Among the professional associations, the "Tongjiang County Dabashan Edible Fungus Association" has relatively strong strength. The association was established at the end of 2003, currently has 600 members, and its main members are edible fungus production specialized households in Tiexi. It has radiated and driven 3,000 households within a 100-kilometer radius across 7 counties at the border of Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces to develop edible fungus production. In 2007, it developed 7 million bags of edible fungi, which can achieve an output value of 35 million yuan.
(5) Research and development of new varieties and new technologies. In recent years, breakthroughs have been made in variety selection and breeding, over-summering technology, pest and disease control, and product development. Two high-quality silver ear fungus strains, "Yinke 01-2" and "A2," two high-quality wood ear fungus strains, "Fengshou No. 2" and "04," and two high-yield and high-quality shiitake mushroom strains, "135" and "939," have been selected and bred. The "Tongjiang Silver Ear Fungus Standardized Cultivation Technical Regulations" have been formulated, the "technology for mycelium growth and over-summering of bagged shiitake mushroom logs in sheds" has been overcome, the "sawdust silver ear fungus cultivation technology" has been explored, and a series of deeply processed silver ear fungus products have been developed. At present, the per-unit yield of silver ear fungus reaches 0.4 kg per bottle of spawn (dried product), the per-unit yield of wood ear fungus can reach 0.75 kg per bottle of spawn (dried product), and the per-unit yield of shiitake mushrooms can reach 0.1 kg per bag (dried product), but the degradation of spawn is obvious.
(6) Production facilities. Specialized equipment for edible fungus production in the county has basically become widespread. Among them: the combined equipment of "diesel engine + grinder + bagging machine + electric motor" has reached 250 sets, with each set having a processing capacity of 50,000-100,000 bags; 480 high-temperature sterilization stoves have been built (including 30 boiler sterilization stoves), with each stove having a production capacity of 20,000-40,000 bags. The county has built 850 "standardized simple mushroom sheds," and each mushroom shed can hold 3,000-4,000 bags of fungus logs.
II. Restricting Factors
(1) Weak technical force and insufficient science and technology extension. Professional and technical personnel are extremely scarce. At present, there is not a single scientific and technical personnel with a college degree in edible fungus specialization, and skilled technical personnel who have gradually explored and accumulated experience from production are also seriously insufficient, with fewer than 50 practical farmer technicians at the village level. The "Tongjiang County Silver Ear Fungus Research Institute," which engages in edible fungus variety selection and breeding and practical technology extension, has neither office space nor scientific research equipment, and has few personnel on duty.
(2) The market is not well developed, and the construction of leading enterprises lags behind. The county still has no specialized edible fungus purchasing and marketing market. Product purchasing and marketing rely only on vendors going from village to village and household to household to purchase. Both sides have asymmetric access to market information, and difficulties in selling and buying often occur, making production and operating benefits unstable. At the same time, leading enterprises are not strong in driving capacity, and their production and operating scales are relatively small. During the discussions, leading enterprises mainly reported: they hope the government will help solve the purchasing funds during the purchasing season, land use for processing plant construction, take the lead in developing a specialized purchasing and marketing market, and take the lead in solving the "trademark use issue" in "integrating brand resources," the "supporting policy issues for base construction," etc.
(3) Insufficient capital investment and weak capacity for expanding reproduction. Edible fungi belong to a technology- and labor-intensive industry, with large input and large output. Because farmers in Tongjiang are not yet wealthy, fungus farmers' own investment is seriously insufficient, and the expansion of the industry scale is slow. According to surveys, in edible fungus production, the comprehensive cost per bag is 1.5 yuan, and the mushroom income per bag is 5 yuan (calculated at 3,000-3,500 bags, excluding farmers' own labor input), and the net income of each mushroom shed is more than 12,000 yuan.
(4) Supporting policies are insufficient, and enterprises cannot build industrialized bases on their own. Leading enterprises reported that enterprises urgently need to build their own high-quality raw material bases, but in reality this simply cannot be operated, because as long as enterprises uniformly purchase farmers' miscellaneous wood sticks, relevant departments will levy various fees and even impose fines on the enterprises, which the enterprises simply cannot bear. However, there will be no specific fee collection or fines for farmers cutting and using wood themselves. In order to promote industrialized operation, the government must introduce supporting relevant policy measures as soon as possible.
III. Countermeasures
Through discussions with farmers, grassroots cadres, specialized cooperative organizations, leading enterprises, and professional technicians, it was unanimously believed that the development of edible fungi in Tongjiang has four major advantages: ecology, resources, brand, and market. The development of the edible fungus industry in Tongjiang should focus on the following four tasks:
(1) Build bases according to scientific planning. On the basis of ensuring the orderly development and sustainable utilization of ear fungus forest resources, according to regional climate characteristics and farmers' planting and raising habits, and according to the "five haves" conditions (having a site, having resources, having labor, having funds, and having a water source) and the "one village, one product" development model, plan edible fungus industry development belts and development zones.
It is necessary to cultivate specialized large households for collecting production raw materials such as tree trunks and branches, specialized large households for raw material grinding, specialized large households for raw material bagging, specialized large households for fungus log maturation and sterilization, specialized large households for spawn inoculation, specialized large households for mushroom shed management, and large households for product purchasing and marketing, innovate the edible fungus production mechanism, and solve problems such as production standards not being unified, scale being too small, and benefits being relatively low caused by every household undertaking the entire production process.
(2) Tackle key scientific and technological problems. It is necessary to strengthen the technical team focusing on silver ear fungus production, build the "Tongjiang County Silver Ear Fungus Research Institute" into a base integrating scientific research, production demonstration, and technical training, and promote the rapid transformation of scientific research achievements and new technologies into real productivity. At the same time, it is necessary to carry out technical cooperation with colleges and universities, and organize efforts to overcome technical topics restricting production development such as "spawn carrying diseases," "outdoor over-summering of fungus logs," "variety selection and breeding and high and stable yields," and "biological pest and disease control."
(3) Support and cultivate leading enterprises through policies. In the process of promoting the development of the edible fungus industry, the government should change from directly grasping production development to promoting production development through policies, from departments building production bases to enterprises building their own industrial bases, and from the agriculture department grasping development to all departments grasping industrialized operation. Through policy support, encourage enterprises to rent mountain forests, rent land, and build their own raw material bases. Help leading enterprises improve the industrialized operation system, reasonably adjust the interest relationship between large mushroom-growing households and enterprises, strongly promote large households and enterprises to form close interest alliances, and protect the production enthusiasm of mushroom-growing farmers. Address in a targeted way the hot issues of leading enterprises in the production and operation process, such as working capital, bases, plant land use, and brand integration, and establish an industry consultation mechanism involving farmers, enterprises, and the government.
(4) Expand marketing through market development. Give full play to the linking role of specialized sales markets and product distribution markets, and strive during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period to build a specialized silver ear fungus market and a distribution base for product development, purchasing, and marketing. Link the county and townships to build an edible fungus marketing platform and enhance the overall benefits of the edible fungus industry.
(5) Ensure implementation through organizational guarantees. Party committees and governments should take the edible fungus industry, with silver ear fungus as the characteristic product and shiitake mushrooms as the focus, as a pillar industry for enriching the people and strengthening the county, set up a working team, strengthen a scientific research team, assign one leader to take charge, adhere to one department taking the lead, and one leading enterprise driving development, grasp it continuously year after year, carry it forward term after term, persevere unremittingly, and achieve scale and results.