Tiankou Black Fungus

Tiankou Black Fungus

　　Farmers in Tanshang Village, Tiankou Township, Xihua County, Zhoukou City, Henan Province have cleverly escaped poverty by leaving their farmland behind. By utilizing agricultural waste such as cotton hulls and corn cobs, they grow edible fungi—mainly black fungus—on unused land. Last year alone, this brought the village an average per capita income of 10,000 yuan. The village has also been recognized as a “National Advanced Village for Small Mushroom Cultivation.”

　　Tanshang Village is located near the Jialu River, and over 2,900 acres of its land are mostly riverside fields, suffering from severe sandification, poor water and fertilizer retention, and yielding low and unstable harvests. The village Party branch sought to turn weaknesses into strengths for economic development. After multiple discussions with villagers on adjusting the planting structure, they identified edible fungus cultivation as a fast, low-cost, and highly effective way to achieve prosperity. In 1987, the village began sporadic cultivation of edible fungi. They made use of large amounts of agricultural by-products, growing fungi around houses and along field edges, fully utilizing unused land to turn waste into treasure and make every inch of land profitable. The village also increased investment in technology, funding, and labor, establishing an edible fungus production base. Experts from Henan Agricultural University, the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and municipal, county, and township science associations were invited to the village to teach techniques and guide fungus cultivation. Methods such as centralized training sessions, on-site demonstrations, mentorship programs, and hotline Q&A were used to promote scientific cultivation practices. The village and township governments invested over 200,000 yuan to build 100 standardized production sheds and introduced more than 10 varieties of “high-quality, special, and rare” fungi such as chicken leg mushroom, pleurotus nebrodensis, and tea tree mushroom. During the peak cultivation and management seasons, aside from full village participation, skilled farmers from nearby villages were hired at high wages to assist. The village established an Edible Fungus Association to provide pre-production, mid-production, and post-production services for fungus growers. This included unified technical management, synchronized bagging schedules, and unified pricing for sales, achieving an integrated production–supply–sales chain. The village also actively trained agents, wholesalers, and brokers to support the distribution of edible fungi. Currently, over 60 villagers are permanently engaged in the sale of edible fungi, with products sold to provinces and cities such as Shandong, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Hubei, and Zhengzhou. The carefully selected pollution-free black fungus has entered national agricultural markets and supermarkets. Over the past 20 years, the scale of fungus cultivation has gradually expanded, techniques have continuously improved, and economic returns have increased year by year.

　　Source: Office of the People’s Government of Xihua County