Trial-Growing Wine Cap Mushrooms: The Village Director Blazes a Path to Prosperity for the Villagers

In the bright and beautiful spring days of March, Li Jianqiang, director of Huihu Village in Baijie Town, Naxi District, Luzhou City, has been all smiles these days. The more than 400 jin of wine cap mushrooms (Stropharia rugosoannulata) harvested from the fields twice a day, in the morning and afternoon, are sent to large supermarkets in downtown Luzhou at the first opportunity, and the wholesale price of 12 yuan per kilogram brings him an income of more than 2,000 yuan every day. "I never expected growing wine cap mushrooms to be so worthwhile. Based on the current yield, the 5 mu of wine cap mushrooms I trial-planted last winter can bring in a net income of 60,000 yuan," Li Jianqiang said happily while harvesting the mushrooms in the field.

Li Jianqiang harvesting the trial-planted wine cap mushrooms in the field

Li Jianqiang's trial planting of wine cap mushrooms in Huihu Village this year came about because of a study trip organized by the town. In July 2016, when Li Jianqiang joined the town-organized trip to Chongqing to study agricultural industrialization, he was thrilled to discover at a farm a money-making project of growing wine cap mushrooms using idle land in bamboo forests and bamboo sawdust as the main auxiliary material. "Our Huihu Village is in the core area of Naxi's 100,000-mu bamboo sea. If we can also grow wine cap mushrooms, the large amount of bamboo sawdust waste left over from bamboo product processing by the village's Zhuyun Company will have a new use, and the thick layer of bamboo leaves that falls every year will also become a ready-made raw material. The village will have another income-generating industry," Li Jianqiang told this writer.

So, in October 2016, in order to blaze a path to prosperity for the villagers, Li Jianqiang took the lead by investing 60,000 yuan to bring in mushroom spawn, haul sawdust back from the village's Zhuyun Company, and invite technical staff from the spawn company to provide hands-on guidance. Strictly following the procedures and requirements, he was the first to trial-plant 5 mu of wine cap mushrooms.

What Li Jianqiang did not expect was that after only more than 3 months of careful management, in late February this year, under the idle land of the phoebe bamboo forest, thick, sturdy wine cap mushrooms broke through the soil and the bamboo leaves spread over it and appeared before his eyes. Li Jianqiang had succeeded in growing wine cap mushrooms, which also meant that Huihu Village had found a new way forward for developing under-forest economy.

Li Jianqiang introduced that growing wine cap mushrooms in phoebe bamboo forest land not only has relatively low production costs and is easy to operate, but apart from the spawn, all materials are obtained locally, and the benefits are quite good. The input cost per mu is about 12,000 yuan, and the yield per mu can reach at least 2,000 kilograms or more. Calculated at the current market wholesale price of 12 yuan per kilogram, the net income per mu is 12,000 yuan, making the economic benefit very considerable. "In particular, wine cap mushrooms can be harvested 2-3 times from one planting," Li Jianqiang said.

"Growing wine cap mushrooms with bamboo sawdust earns ten thousand yuan per mu, and one planting yields 2-3 harvests. It really is a good industry." During this period, after seeing Li Jianqiang growing wine cap mushrooms as if picking up "golden babies" from the field, the villagers were all full of envy, and 22 households have now asked to join in growing wine cap mushrooms. Faced with the villagers' desire to get rich, while busy harvesting wine cap mushrooms, Li Jianqiang also began preparing to establish a specialized cooperative so that the villagers can grow wine cap mushrooms as a group. "Next, I will invite professionals to train the villagers who are interested in joining in growing wine cap mushrooms, and strive to have the whole village's wine cap mushroom planting area reach more than 200 mu next year, build Huihu Village into Luzhou's largest wine cap mushroom planting base, and turn the under-forest land into a 'treasure bowl' for enriching the people and increasing income," Li Jianqiang said.