In Binh Phuoc province, in recent years, mushroom farming has developed rapidly in both production and consumption because mushrooms are a clean food with high economic and nutritional value. However, in reality, mushroom farming has not yet developed commensurate with its potential.

The mushroom growing model brings an income of 1 billion VND/year for Mr. Tran Van Tu's family

Easy model to make, good income

In Tien Hung commune, Mr. Tran Van Tu is famous throughout the region for his success in mushroom production and business. Starting a business from producing oyster mushrooms with a few dozen square meters of camp camp more than 10 years ago, Mr. Tu now owns a large-scale mushroom production system with an area of ​​over 2,000 square meters, annually supplying nearly 40 tons of mushrooms of all kinds to the market. Mr. Tu shared: Currently in our province, agriculture is still the main source, so materials for growing mushrooms such as straw, sugarcane bagasse, stalks, corn cobs, especially sawdust are readily available... Therefore, developing mushroom farming has a lot of meaning, not only taking advantage of agricultural waste products, cleaning up fields but also bringing great economic benefits. For example, my family's total annual income from mushrooms is about 1 billion VND.

Mr. Nguyen Van Quang, owner of a mushroom farm in Tan Loi commune, added: "The investment capital for growing mushrooms is not much, the techniques are not too complicated, anyone can do it. Mushrooms have a short growing time, so after just over 30 days of planting, the product can be harvested.

In particular, consumers today are very fond of mushroom products, right at the family's farm, fresh mushrooms are sometimes not enough to supply restaurants and hotels in the province.

Investment costs in growing mushrooms are low, do not take up much land, have a quick turnaround, have little risk but give high income and profits. With an initial investment of about 10 million VND and 100m2 of land to build a camp, it is possible to create a stable job for a worker specializing in growing mushrooms with an income of 1.5-2 million VND/month.

Furthermore, the climate allows growing mushrooms all year round, both low-temperature-loving (butterfly mushrooms) and high-temperature-loving (straw mushrooms), types that can range from 7-10 types. Besides, raw materials for growing mushrooms in Binh Phuoc are very available, abundant, cheap and currently wasted, especially straw.

In particular, receiving foreign science and technology along with current domestic research results allows us to have a set of good, high-yield mushroom varieties suitable for each region and each season, allowing us to master seed production and mushroom growing technology. This technology is not complicated, inexpensive, and is transferred smoothly through the agricultural extension system.

Demand is growing

According to statistics from the Binh Phuoc Mushroom Industry Association, mushroom growing in our province has developed quite rapidly in quantity and scale: In 2002, there were only 200 households participating in mushroom growing, and now this number has reached 3,000 households.

People are starting to have confidence in mushroom growing and are shifting strongly to produce goods on an increasingly large scale. The output of all kinds of mushrooms in 2019 reached about 5 thousand tons, of which oyster mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms and straw mushrooms... accounted for about 70-80%, the rest were medicinal mushrooms.

The mushroom consumption market is increasingly expanding inside and outside the province, which is a decisive condition for production development in Binh Phuoc. The habit of using mushrooms as a daily food in family meals has been well established in the community.

Thanks to that, the selling price of fresh mushrooms such as oyster mushrooms, button mushrooms, cat mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms... always fluctuates at a high level, from 30,000 to 70,000 VND/kg. Regarding the nutritional content of edible mushrooms, Ms. Nguyen Thi Tram, officer of the Center for Information and Application of Science and Technology, (Department of Science and Technology) said: In addition to nutritional value (rich in protein, glucid, lipid, amino acids, vitamins, minerals..., mushrooms also have biological activities (polysaccharides, nucleic acids...) so mushrooms are considered "clean vegetables", "clean meat" and "medicinal food".

Because of the nutritional value of mushrooms, people's need to eat mushrooms is increasing. On the other hand, Binh Phuoc is in a period of rapid economic development, many projects have been implemented attracting a large workforce, certainly the market for edible mushrooms in the near future will increase rapidly.

Through the above parameters, we can confirm that the mushroom industry is an industry with high economic value and sustainability, households can take advantage of free time and empty space to increase income, or invest in expertise to ensure economic efficiency.