(VOVworld) – Growing mushrooms is a traditional craft of Lai Vung district in Dong Thap province. To meet a growing demand, local farmers have applied a greenhouse mushroom cultivation model to boost productivity and quality.

Selling straw mushrooms at about 1.8 USD per kilo, farmers will earn a profit of 88 USD (Photo: facebook.com/Meo nấm rơm chất lượng cao)

Mushrooms contain a great deal of protein, vitamin, and growing them can be quite profitable.

In Lai Vung district, Dong Thap province, straw mushrooms are cultivated along the Hau River – Dinh Hoa, Tan Hoa, Tan Thanh, and Vinh Thoi.

The locals grow mushrooms in the fields, in their gardens, and now in greenhouses, a cultivation model which has made many mushroom growers in the province rich, earning up to 880 USD a month.

In just 15 square meters, Ngo Minh Tan of Hoa Thanh commune can harvest more than 10 kilos of mushrooms a day.

He told us: “If we grow mushrooms outdoors, we must use pesticides. But it’s unnecessary to spray pesticides in a greenhouse because there are no insects. This model boosts the price of straw mushrooms.”

The greenhouse model reduces the area of land, the amount of straw required, the overhead, and the attention demanded, in addition to minimizing insect pests and diseases.

There are 20 households growing mushrooms in Hoa Thanh commune. Tong Duy Thong is one of the most successful growers. Every year he harvests tons of mushrooms and makes a good income. Thong combines the traditional straw and cotton methods of growing mushrooms, saving on rice straw while increasing his productivity.

According to Thong, “Now I have four mushroom greenhouses instead of just one. The model is suitable for farmers in the Mekong Delta, especially farmers in Lai Vung district, which has a great deal of available straw. The method doesn’t require much labor."

Lai Vung straw mushrooms have a stable market in companies like the Viet My Company, which specializes in processing and canning mushrooms, vegetables, and fruits for export.

Its factory in the Hau River Industrial Park, processes approximately 10 tons of straw mushrooms a day.

A variety of high-yield mushrooms in Tan Hung Commune, Soc Son District, Hanoi.

The price of straw mushrooms has recently increased due to rising domestic and export demand. And a kilo of greenhouse mushrooms sells for about 0.66 cents more than a kilo of mushrooms grown outdoors.

Huynh Van Ton, Deputy Head of Lai Vung’s Agricultural Section, said: “As a state management agency, we provide technical support for farmers, organize training courses, and give professional advice to the People’s Committee. Currently we are running vocational training courses to teach farmers to produce mushrooms more efficiently."

Greenhouse mushroom farming requires little capital and is a good solution to the challenges of fighting climate change and epidemic diseases and making better use of agricultural by-products.