Oyster mushroom cultivation brings high income

Taking use of the available materials, some households in Cong village, Kien Lao commune, Luc Ngan district (Bac Giang province) have recently invested in growing oyster mushrooms and gained high economic value. Mushroom cultivation is becoming a new career for the local residents.  

Ly Van Mong (left) in Cong village cares for the first crop of oyster mushroom.

After visiting to learn about the mushroom growing model in some neighboring families, Ninh Van Duong in Cong village, Kien Lao commune invested in more than one thousand mushroom gourds and grew them in an area of 50 square meters behind his house in 2014.

He had the first batch of mushroom harvested after one month. Acknowledging the effectiveness, Duong has expanded the production and developed nearly 4,000 guards per crop since 2015.

Each guard gives 0.8 to over 1 kilogram of mushroom on average. With a stable selling price of 25 – 30,000 VND (1.08 – 1.3 USD) per kilogram, Duong’s family can earn about 90 million VND (over 3,800 USD) excluding all production cost from more than 4,000 mushroom gourds.

Applying the same method, Ly Van Mong in Cong village has actively cared for the first crop of mushroom. At the fist crop, his family grew over 1,000 mushroom gourds.

Mong shared: “Growing oyster mushroom has many advantages such as simple caring technique, high economic value that suits to the family with less production fields. Besides we can take use of the abundant off season labour. The products are clean and safe with easy harvest and consumption”. This year crop is expected to bring Mong some 30 million VND (1,300 USD).

Now, Kien Lao commune has more than 30 households (mostly in Cong village) to grow the mushroom to develop the economy. These models helped the farmers earn more income and improve the life.

According to Ninh Van Sap, Chairman of the Farmers’ Association in Kien Lao commune, to gain higher economic value from mushroom growing, the communal Farmers’ Association encouraged the farmers to expand the model to other villages of Khuon Than, Cam Vai, Ao Keo and Ha while establishing a production linkage group to ease them in experience sharing and product selling.

Oyster mushroom growing in Kien Lao commune opened a new trend for agriculture economic development. The model helped change the cultivation awareness and custom for many families to partly eliminate the hunger and reduce the poverty in the district.