Green transformation of the edible mushroom industry: look at Guangchang's successful practice

    Industrial wood chips, bamboo chips, rice straw left over from agricultural production, lotus seed shells, cottonseed hulls, and branches after fruit tree pruning - these production wastes and scraps that seem to have little use value have now, through the skillful handling of Guangchang farmers, become substitute materials for edible mushroom cultivation. In recent years, Guangchang County, Fuzhou, Jiangxi, has adhered to the concept of green development, taken the path of resource conservation and circular utilization, minimized the consumption of forest resources, and achieved a green transformation of the edible mushroom industry.

Edible mushrooms, especially tea tree mushrooms (Agrocybe aegerita), have been a major pillar industry newly emerging in Guangchang County in recent years that enriches the people. In the past, due to a lack of standards and innovation, the edible mushroom industry relied on broadleaf forest trees as raw materials from production to processing for a long time, consuming large amounts of forest resources. In order to reverse this phenomenon, Guangchang County fully implemented a logging ban project, guided the edible mushroom industry to shift from mountain-based development to development at the foot of the mountains, and at the same time focused on increasing technological innovation, optimizing variety layout, and developing more than 10 new mushroom varieties such as tea tree mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, straw mushrooms, and shaggy ink cap mushrooms that use industrial wood chips, bamboo chips, rice straw, lotus seed shells, cottonseed hulls, and fruit tree branches as substitute materials. Today, the county has more than 200 edible mushroom production bases mainly featuring tea tree mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, and others, with a planting scale of over 100 million logs (bags), and 14,000 farming households in the county participating in cultivation. Non-wood-growing mushrooms have become the "main force" in mushroom cultivation. The green transformation of the edible mushroom industry has also greatly boosted related local markets such as mushroom processing, sales, printing, packaging, and sorting, and helped more than 20,000 people solve employment and entrepreneurial problems.