Edible mushroom cultivation opens up a new path to higher income and prosperity in Inner Mongolia

Wang Baoyan, Party branch secretary of Chengxinglong Village, Yuxin Town, Horqin District, Inner Mongolia, built 21 greenhouses on his own contracted farmland in 2010 with the support of national pro-farmer policies and under the overall guidance of the town Party committee and government, using them all for growing shiitake and oyster mushrooms. It is understood that each greenhouse can hold 20,000 shiitake mushroom sticks per crop, with each stick yielding nearly 0.75 kg on average, one crop per year; for oyster mushrooms, each greenhouse can hold 15,000 sticks, with each stick yielding 1 kg on average, with 2 to 3 crops per year. By this reckoning, each greenhouse can produce about 15,000 kg of shiitake and oyster mushrooms per crop. At current market prices of about 3.5 yuan per jin for shiitake mushrooms and about 2 yuan per jin for oyster mushrooms, with total investment of 3 yuan per stick for shiitake and 2 yuan per stick for oyster mushrooms, each greenhouse can achieve an annual net profit of about 60,000 yuan from edible mushrooms.

At present, driven by Wang Baoyan, more and more villagers are joining in edible mushroom cultivation, embarking on a distinctive path to a moderately prosperous life.