Qingfeng County farmers grow mushrooms with crop straw, saving nearly 80% of costs

      "Straw as a growing medium, mushrooms bring good returns." Many edible mushroom growers in Qingfeng County, Henan Province, treat straw as a treasure and are reluctant to burn it.

Liu Heshun from Liuzhuang Village in the county is a widely known button mushroom expert. He turns straw "from waste into treasure", collecting corn straw, crushing and fermenting it to replace the growing medium. Old Liu also keeps a circular-economy account: buying growing medium costs 8 yuan per sq m, while using straw costs only 2 yuan per sq m, saving nearly 80% of costs. Qingfeng County now has more than 11,000 edible mushroom growing households, and growing edible mushrooms with straw has driven the straw-utilization economy and boosted farmers' incomes.