“Last year I took the initiative to plant five mu of morels. I didn’t expect that the income from them would be high, but I earned more than 60,000 yuan,” Zhao Yonghua, a grower in Nuozhang Village, said with a big smile.

Nuozhang, located in Lincang City’s Cangyuan County, is a small village with 38 poor households and 89 poor people. Last year, Nuozhang Village introduced two development models, “company plus village collective economic entity plus farmer households” and “party members plus farmer households”. With the further adjustment of the agricultural production structure, as well as the rural economic structure, farmer incomes in the village are rising.

Morels contain at least eight vitamins and are as nutritious as meat. “Last year our village decided to trial plant morels. Six people in three poor households joined us. Now those three households have been lifted out of poverty,” Zha Si, Party Secretary of Nuozhang Village, said happily.

The village has 41 households and 168 farmers. They have planted more than 80 mu of morels, achieving an output of 3.51 tons and a total revenue of 960,000 yuan last year. The villagers earned 576,000 yuan, which is the equivalent of 14,000 yuan per household, while the village received 30,000 yuan.

The people in Nuozhang Village are now enthusiastic about growing morels because the costs are low, while the benefits are good and the financial returns quick. “Aware of the benefits, we will mobilize poor households to increase morel coverage to 200 mu this year. We expect to achieve a production value of 1.6 million yuan. We hope more morel growers will become rich,” said Zha Si.