Mushroom cultivation props up farmers' road to higher incomes

The Spring Festival had just passed, and the land of Yan-Zhao was frozen cold, yet inside the greenhouse of Fang Hongjie and Zhang Xiujuan, a couple in Nanfang Village, Jizhou District, Hengshui City, Hebei Province, it was as warm as spring. Bags of mushroom substrate sticks were neatly arranged, and clusters of large-leaf oyster mushrooms bloomed like flowers, fresh and tender.

In Nanfang Village, Jizhou District, Hengshui City, after the winter slack season, most villagers went out to work to earn some extra income. Zhang Xiujuan heard that growing oyster mushrooms requires little investment, carries low risk, is easy to learn, and does not interfere with farming; moreover, oyster mushrooms are pollution-free green food, contain selenium, polysaccharides and other substances, can boost human immunity, and have high nutritional value. Fang Hongjie and Zhang Xiujuan then had the idea of growing greenhouse oyster mushrooms. After careful consideration, in September last year, Fang Hongjie's family discussed it with two other families and decided that each would invest 7800 yuan to build a greenhouse and try growing oyster mushrooms.

The down-to-earth and hardworking farming families acted as soon as they decided. To save money, they relied on themselves and worked hard; from building the greenhouse to loading the mushroom spawn, they did everything they could by themselves. "When we were welding the frame, it was snowing and so cold that our hands got frostbitten," Zhang Xiujuan said.

The hardest part was dealing with technical problems. To make the oyster mushrooms grow better, they asked experienced people for advice again and again, and also bought many books on growing oyster mushrooms, teaching themselves cultivation techniques such as mixing substrate, inoculating, and controlling temperature and humidity.

Exploring while practicing, through their careful tending, one greenhouse of oyster mushrooms yielded a bumper harvest that same year. Starting last November, they had already harvested three crops so far, with a total of nearly 6500 jin. "Because it was our first year growing them and our technique was not up to standard, this year's yield will definitely be higher than last year's," her husband Fang Hongjie said confidently.