Green innovation in shiitake mushroom farming

At a factory based in Xixia county, Central China's Henan province, workers are installing new high-temperature and high-pressure sterilizers, which will be utilized in the process of making mushroom spawn bags.

"With these six sterilizers in place, all the nearby shiitake mushroom growers will be able to make spawn bags in our factory every spring, with a daily output of nearly 50,000 bags," said Sun Jianfeng, director of the factory.

Sun said over recent years, local farmers have widely utilized electrical devices in mushroom growing, aimed at advancing the green transformation of the industry and reducing carbon consumption.

In the past, the farmers could only burn coal to dry the shiitake mushrooms and sterilize the mushroom spawn bags, which not only brought multiple challenges to quality control, but also resulted in severe environmental problems.

"Now these tasks can all be effectively accomplished with the help of the electrical devices," said Sun.

Besides, a large number of smart greenhouses have been launched in the county, which help the farmers realize real-time control of temperature, humidity, ventilation and sunlight, Sun added.

Against such a backdrop, the local power supplier said it has expanded three 110 kV substations and built a new 35 kV substation, thus better meeting the surging demand for electricity in Xixia.

Efforts have also been made to renovate 14.7 kilometers of 35 kV transmission lines and 275.29 kilometers of 10 kV transmission lines.

With a history of over 30 years in shiitake mushroom growing, Xixia is currently home to more than 200,000 mushroom growers and the industry contributes to 60 percent of the county's total income.

After the green transformation, the use of electrical devices in sterilization alone will help the county save more than 40 million yuan in production costs and reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 70,000 to 90,000 tons.

liuzizheng@chinadaily.com.cn