Small mushrooms prop up a big industry that helps farmers get rich

Nanling County in Anhui Province has long been known as "Wuhu's rice market, Nanling's grain barn." While producing large amounts of rice, it also produces large amounts of straw as a by-product. In the past, farmers often burned it, which polluted the atmospheric environment and increased soil alkalinity, which was not conducive to rice growth. To transform this abundant straw resource advantage into an industrial advantage, Nanling County in Anhui Province leveraged its rich local straw resources and labor resources, targeted the characteristic industry of edible mushroom development, provided policy support, technical guidance and financial assistance, and formed an integrated industrial chain from spawn production, growing and processing to @#@136@#@ sales, achieving remarkable economic benefits.

When talking about the development of Nanling's edible mushroom industry, it was not all smooth sailing. Just as farmers had tasted the benefits and were vigorously developing mushrooms, affected by market conditions, the benefits of farmers growing mushrooms once declined, and the area suddenly decreased by several hundred thousand square chi. Even the mushroom greenhouses contracted in Nanling by merchants from Fujian were abandoned on their own, and the mushroom industry that had just begun was about to die young. To stabilize mushroom production, the county party committee and government, on the one hand, encouraged capable people to continue growing mushrooms, and on the other hand, tried every possible way to help mushroom farmers reduce production costs and expand market sales channels. In 2001, villager Zhu Guoqing of the former Dongtang Township grew four greenhouses and made a profit of more than 80,000 yuan that year, and helped mushroom farmers sell 150 tons of mushrooms externally. Encouraged by the government, Zhu Guoqing invested tens of thousands of yuan to set up a salted mushroom processing plant, avoiding losses from rotten mushrooms for surrounding mushroom farmers. Then, through contacts on multiple fronts, he brought in Lin Chaokuan, a merchant from Fuding City, Fujian Province, who invested more than 400,000 yuan to set up a spawn factory, cultivating high-yield, high-quality spawn to supply surrounding farmers, thereby reducing the production costs increased by long-distance transport and introduction of spawn from Fujian.

To promote the substantial development of the edible mushroom industry, the county adopted the working policy of "government promotion, enterprise pull, association assistance and base driving," established an edible mushroom association, which provided farmers with a series of services such as spawn supply, production technical guidance and post-production sales, and set up a 10-million-yuan edible mushroom industry development and risk relief fund to help mushroom farmers improve their risk resistance. For farmers who wanted to develop edible mushrooms, each town formulated preferential policies, coordinated @#@150@#@ in funding, and implemented rewards according to the scale of development. Using fiscal agricultural support funds, the Nanling County Edible Mushroom Science and Technology Demonstration Base was established to provide production training for mushroom farmers throughout the county, gradually realizing the transition of button mushroom production from seasonal production to year-round production. At the same time, in order to expand the market and solve mushroom farmers' worries about selling mushrooms, in addition to establishing a marketing team of several hundred people, it also introduced leading agricultural industrialization enterprises such as Annan and Jiufa through investment promotion, processing nearly 10,000 tons of edible mushrooms annually.

With policy support, leading enterprise driving and industrial extension, Nanling's edible mushrooms are showing a vigorous development trend and have now covered 8 towns across the county. On the basis of focusing on the development of high-quality button mushrooms, other varieties such as shiitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms and rare mushrooms have also been developed in a supporting manner. This year, more than 3 million square chi of button mushroom planting area was added, and the tiny mushroom has truly propped up a blue sky for farmers to get rich.