Model of growing medicinal Ganoderma mushrooms in Liem Can

With the goal of diversifying rural occupations, creating jobs, and increasing income for local workers, in 2013, implementing the Mushroom Cultivation Development Project, the Farmers' Association of Liem Can Commune, Thanh Liem District focused on propagating and mobilizing members to participate in building mushroom cultivation models and applying science and technology to production. Up to now, mushroom cultivation has brought a stable source of income for some households.

Ms. Nghiem Thi Thuy, Vuc Trai Nhue village, "got involved" in mushroom growing since 2013. Ms. Thuy's facility mainly grows oyster mushrooms, straw mushrooms, king mushrooms... to serve the mushroom consumption needs in and outside the district. Not only bringing high profits to the family, Ms. Thuy's mushroom growing model also contributes to creating jobs for a number of workers in the village. It is known that after a process of research, exploration and learning, Ms. Thuy decided to grow medicinal lingzhi mushrooms. This is a fairly new model, requiring strict planting and care experience. At first, she experimented with growing 2,000 bags of lingzhi mushrooms on an area of 700m2. At first, when she first started growing, Ms. Thuy encountered many difficulties in terms of capital, production location and product output.

**The medicinal mushroom growing model of Ms. Nghiem Thi Thuy (Vuc Trai Nhue village, Liem Can commune) brings high economic efficiency.**

Normally, the characteristic of Ganoderma lucidum is that it grows horizontally, so when growing mushrooms, the position of the growing medium bag (the bag containing the mushroom spawn) must be changed continuously according to the desired shape. For the best quality mushrooms, the care steps must strictly follow the correct process such as the temperature must always be guaranteed from 20 - 30 degrees Celsius, the humidity must reach from 70 - 90%, and the lighting conditions must be sufficient for the Ganoderma lucidum to grow evenly. Ms. Thuy often has to spray mist, monitor, and catch insects for the mushrooms... After a period of learning and applying, the Ganoderma lucidum growing model has been successful. Currently, Ms. Thuy's family has more than 4,000 bags of mushroom spawn. To solve the product output, Ms. Thuy's family has invested in a vacuum machine, focused on improving packaging design, focused on improving quality, increased promotion... to attract customers, and expand the consumer market.

Holding a bag of medicinal reishi mushroom spawn, Ms. Thuy said: The harvest time for each batch of mushrooms is from 3 to 6 months, depending on weather conditions. The family's reishi mushrooms are grown completely naturally in a mixture of sawdust from soft woods such as bodhi, rubber... incubated with rice bran and corn powder, absolutely no chemicals are used, so they are completely non-toxic. The price of reishi mushroom products sold on the market is from 700 - 1 million VND/kg. On average, each mushroom spawn will be harvested 3 times, each spawn will produce 3 - 4 mushrooms. Each year, Ms. Thuy's family grows about 8,000 bags of reishi mushrooms, with an estimated output of 250kg of dried reishi mushrooms/year, earning a profit of more than 200 million VND. During the harvest season, Ms. Thuy hires 5 more workers, with a salary of about 4 - 5 million VND/person/crop.

Recently, Ms. Nghiem Thi Thuy's medicinal lingzhi mushroom product has been recognized as a 3-star OCOP product at the district level and meets VietGAP standards. Not only focusing on developing her family's mushroom growing model, Ms. Thuy also provides spawn products and is always ready to share and support techniques for growing and caring for lingzhi mushrooms for surrounding households.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Du, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Liem Can Commune, said: Currently, there are nearly ten households growing edible mushrooms and medicinal lingzhi mushrooms in the commune. This is a promising production model, bringing high economic efficiency to the people. In the coming time, Liem Can Commune will continue to create conditions and support loans to expand production scale, as well as organize training courses on science and technology for people in the commune so that the medicinal lingzhi mushroom growing model will develop further.

Bui Linh

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