The mushroom planting base in Xinji village, Wenling, a county-level city in Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: tzfb001]

Xinji, a remote village in Wenling, a county-level city in Taizhou, has in recent years achieved prosperity by planting mushrooms.

This initiative started in July 2022, when the village spent more than 13 million yuan ($1.87 million) to build a planting base that leverages advanced fermentation techniques and digital management technologies to grow agaricus bisporus, the most cultivated edible mushroom in the world.

Information related to the growing environment of the mushrooms, including temperature, humidity, oxygen content and soil condition, can all be monitored through a screen in the base.

The introduction of this new technology has resulted in improvements to both quality and quantity.

The base's daily yield – about 33,000 metric tons of mushrooms - is eight times that of a traditional greenhouse of the same size.

Despite being priced at about 25 yuan per kilogram, which is much pricier than those sold in other places, the mushrooms produced at the base have been selling well because of their quality.

Presently, more than 150 residents from Xinji are working for the base, each earning an annual average salary of 60,000 yuan. The land where the base is built on can also generate an income of 580,000 yuan in rental for the village.