Rows of morel mushrooms are growing vigorously inside greenhouses at a planting base in the Liangyuan Fruit Tree Farmers Professional Cooperative in Shizhong District of Zaozhuang City, east China's Shandong Province, serving as a new source of income for local farmers.
Known as the "king of mushrooms," morel mushrooms are of high economic value. However, traditional cultivation approach of continuous cropping has long posed a challenge, disrupting soil ecology and causing significant yield declines, thereby constraining the sustainable development of the local morel mushroom industry.
To address this challenge, the cooperative has strengthened collaboration among universities, research institutions and industry partners. With technical support from experts at Qingdao Agricultural University (QAU), agricultural technological personnel and local agricultural authorities, it has introduced an innovative crop rotation system that pairs morel mushrooms with radishes, corn and shepherd's purse.
The model has helped improve soil quality, suppress harmful fungi and overcome the continuous-cropping problem, enabling two harvests a year from the same plot while ensuring stable, high yields of morel mushrooms for four consecutive years.
Assessment conducted by the QAU shows that the base produces more than 1,250 kilograms of morel mushrooms per mu (about 0.067 hectares), meeting the benchmark for high yields. The mushrooms generate an average net income of around 40,000 yuan per mu, far exceeding income earned from conventional grain crops.
The Shizhong District has established an integrated support system that provides farmers with mushroom spawn, technical guidance and producer-consumer match-making services, helping create local jobs, raise rural incomes and strengthen collective economies in the village.
Leveraging diversified online and offline sales channels and a complete cold-chain logistics network, local producers have expanded market access and increased the value of their products.
Empowered by technologies and innovative cultivation practices, Shizhong District has charted a path toward green, efficient and sustainable agricultural development, providing a model for the transformation and upgrading of the edible mushroom industry. (Edited by Li Xueqing with Xinhua Silk Road, lixueqing@xinhua.org)
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