Agricultural technicians contribute to rural revitalization drive in E China's Chuzhou

Nanqiao district, Chuzhou city, east China's Anhui Province has dispatched 77 agricultural technicians to help villagers with their farm work since 2021, to push forward the country's rural revitalization drive.

A man checks on the growth of mushrooms in Mengwa village, Zhangguang township, Chuzhou city, east China's Anhui Province. (People's Daily Online/Zhou Kun)

“It's the mushroom's growing period, so remember to keep the mushroom fruiting chamber ventilated. Special attention must also be paid to bacterial mushroom contamination. Fungi infected with red bread mold must be singled out immediately to prevent further contamination," said He Huaqi, head of a technician team for edible fungi during his inspection of a pilot zone of Jinsui agricultural company in Mengwa village, Zhangguang township of Nanqiao on May 4.

He, also a professor at Anhui Science and Technology University, set up a provincial-level technician delegation for edible fungi, established a provincial-level demonstration base for the edible fungi industry, cultivated new varieties, and introduced new growing methods.

"Some of the rare species we cultivated such as wine cap stropharia and morels can be sold at 18 yuan ($2.60) per kilogram," said the mushroom expert.

"Having growing mushroom for years, I find it has never been as easy as it is today. I now earn more than 60,000 yuan a year from each mu (667 square meters) of land. We growers are really grateful to these experts for solving problems for us," said Lei Xuansong, a mushroom grower.

In 2022, Li Meiqing, a professor at Anhui Agricultural University, led a team to Quting village of Nanqiao to help with the chrysanthemum industry, a calling card of Chuzhou. Li's team mainly worked on key sectors such as seedling cultivation, standardized cultivation, new ways of fixation and deep processing.

"Our team shared with the growers cultivation techniques, and introduced new techniques," Li said. So far, Li's team has built standardized factories covering 2,000 square meters, and a research and develoment center covering 4,000 square meters.

With the help of Li, a local company also developed two chrysanthemum liquor products, gaining an additional over 1.5 million yuan. By integrating the market and enterprises with chrysanthemum growers, Li's team helped build a chrysanthemum planting base covering over 500 mu, bringing job opportunities to nearly 700 households.

Tea experts have carried out over 20 training sessions, solved over 10 technical problems and commercialized three new varieties. Thanks to their hard work, Nanqiao district is now home to 32,000 mu of tea plantations, boasts of tea companies that are capable of producing, processing and selling tea, and has forged several tea brands.