[Agriculture] New Cost-effective Technique for Growing Mushrooms Unveiled by TARI

[Agriculture] New Cost-effective Technique for Growing Mushrooms Unveiled by TARI (Chinese Version)

CNA – Focus Taiwan (2012/05/09) The Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) unveiled a new technique on May 9 that it said would reduce the cost of oyster mushroom cultivation.

The new technique allows farmers to use rice straw instead of sawdust as the medium for growing mushrooms and will save 9,000-18,000 tons of sawdust each year, the institute said.

This could help increase revenue by NT$15,000 (US$511) to NT$22,500 per 10,000 bags of mushrooms, the institute said.

The average annual production of oyster mushrooms in Taiwan is about 30 million bags, which requires 36,000 tons of sawdust each year, according to the institute.

However, the volume of available sawdust has dropped in the recent years, resulting in higher mushroom production costs.

The new technique will not only help lower costs, but will also reduce the amount of rice straw that is disposed of by burning, the research institute said.

Oyster mushrooms, which originated in India, are popular among Taiwanese consumers.

In 2011 Taiwan exported 1,504 tons of mushrooms with a value of US$2.59 million, according to statistics from the Council of Agriculture.


Reference:
CNA – Focus Taiwan 2012/05/09

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