Xihe Town, Zichuan District, combined with the local characteristic Chinese herbal medicine planting project, develops the cultivation of wormwood edible fungi according to local conditions, promotes agricultural efficiency, increases farmers' income, and helps rural revitalization.
In the intelligent high-standard greenhouse in Panchegou Village, Xihe Town, Zichuan District, rows of square shelves are neatly stacked with white mushroom sticks, and clusters of mugwort oyster mushrooms are picked into baskets, waiting for workers to remove the mushroom stems. Dong Xuesheng, general manager of Zibo Nanshan Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd., told reporters that the base currently has a variety of edible mushroom products such as wormwood snow mushroom, wormwood gray mushroom, yellow umbrella, white spirit mushroom, pocket mushroom, hair fungus, etc., in addition to being sold to local supermarkets, it has signed a recycling agreement with the manufacturer to carry out deep processing.
In 2023, Nanshan Agriculture decided to choose edible mushrooms with high added value to develop large-scale planting, and in the exchange with agricultural experts, Dong Xuesheng came up with the idea of using local wormwood resources to grow mushrooms. By adding wormwood as a cultivation medium to the traditional mushroom stick, after several months of experiments, Nanshan Agriculture successfully cultivated "wormwood mushroom" in October of that year, which perfectly combines the unique aroma of wormwood and the delicious taste of mushrooms, and its nutritional value is far better than that of ordinary mushrooms. As soon as it is launched before the Spring Festival in 2024, it will be favored by the market and in short supply. Through differentiated planting, the edible fungus industry in Xihe Town continues to develop, and the edible fungus of wormwood not only increases the collective income of the village, but also drives the employment and income of farmers at their doorstep, bringing benefits to the local people. Wang Yong, an employee of the company, said that the wormwood mushroom base has provided jobs for nearby villagers, and now it is easier for him to go to work, his income has increased compared with before, and his job has become stable.
In December 2023, Nanshan Agriculture completed the first phase of construction and built 12 intelligent greenhouses. At present, the company is continuing to expand its scale, planning to build 30-50 greenhouses, and further extend the industrial chain to develop deep processing of edible fungi. Nanshan Agriculture has also reached a school-enterprise cooperation intention with Anhui University of Science and Technology, with the help of university scientific research to further enrich the types of edible fungi, and develop the cultivation of selenium-rich and germanium-rich functional edible fungi, improve the economic benefits of edible fungi, and help farmers increase their income and revitalize the countryside in an all-round way.
"After the start of the second phase of the project, we will build a fungus stick processing workshop, then put on the drying equipment, and the last step will be on the deep processing project, and we will do all the first and second production by ourselves. After all the greenhouses are built, the fungus stick production workshop, drying workshop and deep processing workshop are planned to be completed by the end of next year, and we will produce, process and put them into the market by ourselves. Dong Xuesheng, general manager of Zibo Nanshan Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd., said.