How is edible fungi technology extension carried out? Qingyuan County summarizes its practical experience
As a traditional pillar industry of Qingyuan County, edible fungi have the advantages of a short cycle, quick results and a high input-output ratio, and are of great significance to revitalizing the rural economy of producing areas and accelerating the pace of farmers in poor mountainous areas escaping poverty, becoming well-off and striving for a relatively comfortable life. Strengthening edible fungi technology extension work and accelerating the transformation of edible fungi scientific and technological achievements are the prerequisite conditions for ensuring the healthy and orderly development of the edible fungi industry in our county. Based on the practice of edible fungi technology extension work in recent years, the author summarizes the successful experience of edible fungi technology extension in our county for the reference of the broad community of edible fungi peers.
1 Taking science and technology as the guide and making good technical reserves
The Qingyuan edible fungi industry relies on the Qingyuan County Edible Fungi Research Center, a nationally advanced edible fungi research institution, as its technical support unit. Relying on its scientific and technological platforms such as the "National Edible Fungi Spark Technology Intensive Zone" and Zhejiang Province's key laboratory and experimental base, the "Provincial Edible Fungi Development Pilot-Scale Test Base", it has successively undertaken and completed 1 national science and technology key project, 2 national Spark projects, 19 provincial-level projects and 25 various projects at the prefectural and county levels; 14 achievements have been appraised by experts as reaching the leading level among similar domestic research; 4 new substitute-material shiitake strains (241-4, Qingyuan 9015, 939, Qingke 20) have been successfully bred, and 12 rare wild mushroom varieties such as Oudemansiella radicata and Fistulina hepatica have been successfully domesticated and cultivated. This series of technical reserves of new edible fungi technologies and new varieties has provided strong technical support for edible fungi technology extension throughout the county.
2 Carrying out edible fungi science popularization work and raising the technical level of the broad community of mushroom farmers
Qingyuan scientific and technical personnel have adopted a technology extension method combining "pre-production technical training, in-production technical guidance and post-production @#@136@#@ services" to carry out edible fungi technology extension and popularization work. Since 1998, the Qingyuan County Edible Fungi Research Center has organized and implemented the "county-wide edible fungi training in a hundred villages" project, completing one round of rotational edible fungi technical training for all 345 administrative villages in the county every three years. In light of the reality that cultivation areas differ greatly in altitude and climate and have different cultivation times, extension personnel conduct multi-level and multi-form technical training by area, teaching new technologies to mushroom farmers through lectures, pictures, exhibitions and on-site meetings, and make full use of scientific and technological distance education platforms, radio, newsletters, cable television stations, blackboard newspapers and other news media for publicity and mobilization. Comprehensive technical training has been conducted in batches and at different levels for grassroots cadres and the broad community of mushroom farmers throughout the county. A total of more than 970 technical training classes of various types have been held county-wide, training more than 25,000 mushroom farmer visits, and more than 40,000 copies (volumes) of technical materials and more than 400 science education film discs have been distributed free of charge. Through science popularization training, edible fungi technology has been comprehensively extended and popularized, and the edible fungi cultivation technical level of the broad community of mushroom farmers and township and township cadres has been comprehensively raised.
3 Building demonstration bases, demonstration areas and demonstration households, and promoting development by using points to drive broader areas
The training and guidance of demonstration bases, demonstration areas and demonstration households are the focus and core of the county's technology extension work. Through their radiating role of using points to drive broader areas, they can influence and drive the broad community of mushroom farmers throughout the county to recognize and accept new edible fungi technologies and to extend and popularize them. For mushroom farmers in the demonstration areas and demonstration bases, we adopt a phased training method, organizing technical training from time to time so that they master at least more than 5 edible fungi cultivation techniques, and provide long-term technical guidance to solve various problems encountered in cultivation and production, ensuring that cultivation and production proceed in an orderly manner.
In order to accelerate the extension and popularization of Qingyuan shiitake standardized production technology throughout the county, since 2005 our county has organized and implemented the "114 Plan for Shiitake Production". According to the requirements of Qingzhengfa [2005] No. 58, the "Opinions on Implementing the '114 Plan' for Shiitake Production", the plan is to establish 100 core demonstration bases for standardized shiitake production (cultivation scale of more than 300,000 bags) and 100 large-scale demonstration households (cultivation scale of more than 20,000 bags) in the county each year, with the county promoting a standardized shiitake production scale of 40 million bags annually (accounting for 50% of the county's total annual cultivation volume).
4 Improving the technology extension network and accelerating the process of industrialized development of edible fungi
Improve and perfect the technology extension system composed of the county, township and village levels. The county edible fungi research center is responsible for technology extension work throughout the county, guided at the higher level by the county government, the county agriculture bureau and the county edible fungi office, with township edible fungi offices set up below; agricultural technology cadres with both edible fungi theory and practical knowledge are selected to serve as full-time edible fungi administrators, responsible for arranging the technical training and demonstration work of that township; village-level edible fungi demonstration households and key households are established, and through them the remaining mushroom farmers are driven to develop various edible fungi, and the county and township governments organize mushroom farmers to extend new technologies in the form of on-site meetings, observation of demonstration bases and sending science and technology to the countryside.
5 Establishing a system linking technology backbones with bases and large households
Qingyuan County implements a system in which technical backbones link with bases and large households. Each technical backbone must go to a demonstration area or demonstration base to link with 1-2 large cultivation demonstration households, stationed on a long-term basis and providing technical guidance from time to time, so as to drive the construction of the demonstration area through the demonstration role of the large cultivation demonstration households. Judging from actual conditions, this system is effective, and each large cultivation demonstration household has become a technical leader in its demonstration area. The Qingyuan County Edible Fungi Research Center has successively set up 57 demonstration sites of various new edible fungi technologies in 20 townships throughout the county, and sent technical personnel on 231 visits to be stationed at demonstration sites for guidance. Through the radiating role of using points to drive broader areas by each demonstration household and demonstration site, various new edible fungi technologies have been rapidly extended and popularized throughout the county.
6 Building a scientific and technological information system to serve edible fungi technology extension
The Qingyuan County Edible Fungi Research Center has done a great deal of work in the edible fungi information service system and achieved notable results. First, it successfully founded the "China Edible Fungi Network"; second, it founded the publication "Qingyuan Edible Fungi"; third, together with the county science and technology bureau, it founded the "Qingyuan Edible Fungi Science and Technology Distance Education Platform" and implemented the "Edible Fungi Rural Distance Education" plan; fourth, together with the Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Information Research Institute, the Lishui Municipal Science and Technology Bureau and others, it jointly filmed and produced 5 science education films including "Standardized Cultivation Techniques for Qingyuan Shiitake", "Cultivation Techniques for Grifola frondosa" and "Sterilization Techniques for Semi-Raw Material of Edible Fungi".
Through the above information carriers, the latest information and industry trends in the fields of edible fungi technology and product market sales can be provided promptly and quickly to edible fungi producers and operators, overcoming blindness and ensuring the orderliness of production and sales.
7 Cultivating and supporting leading edible fungi enterprises to drive the healthy development of the industry
Qingyuan has now built and cultivated a number of leading enterprises with considerable influence in the edible fungi industry in the whole province and even the whole country, such as Dashanhe Group, Zhejiang Fangge Pharmaceutical, Zhejiang Baixing Food and Zhejiang Xianfeng Food. They adopt the production and operation model of "research institute + company + base + farmers". Therefore, as the technical support units of these enterprises, scientific research institutions provide strong technical support for them in edible fungi base construction and production technical guidance, thereby effectively promoting the extension and application of technical achievements and driving the healthy development of the edible fungi industry.
8 Existing problems or deficiencies
8.1 The technology extension service system still needs to be improved. At present, the "county-township-village" three-level technology extension system has a situation of "hot at both ends and cold in the middle": that is, the county-level extension organization is relatively sound and operates relatively normally and orderly; the village and household levels, as the recipients of services, have a strong demand for science and technology and can actively organize and cooperate with extension work; while township-level full-time edible fungi personnel often also have to undertake more other comprehensive affairs, and therefore cannot fully devote themselves to edible fungi technology extension work.
8.2 Technology extension funding is relatively insufficient. Qingyuan County's local finances and the three science and technology funds are tight, and the working funds used for edible fungi technology extension are relatively small, which is incompatible with the large number of extension tasks undertaken by technology extension departments and has to a certain extent affected the normal conduct of technology extension work.
8.3 The impact of the industry situation on technology extension work. The market situation of the edible fungi industry directly affects whether technology extension work proceeds smoothly. For example, in recent years the shiitake market has been sluggish, and many mushroom farmers' confidence in and enthusiasm for shiitake production have decreased, thereby affecting the conduct of technology extension work.