Using green mushrooms to effectively prevent rice pests
Farmers in Hau Giang are using green mushrooms to spray on winter-spring rice fields, not only achieving high efficiency in pest control but also contributing to environmental protection in the fields.
To cultivate green mushrooms, people need to prepare raw materials such as broken rice and root mushrooms, tools including steamers, incubators, plastic bags and plastic tubes. The rice is soaked in water and then put into the steamer, then mixed with root mushrooms, put into plastic bags and incubated for 14 days. The finished mushrooms are filtered to get water, mixed with adhesive and water to spray on the field. Because the finished mushrooms are green, farmers call them green mushrooms.
Farmers mix green mushroom spray. Illustrative photo. (Source: baodongnai.com.vn)
Green fungus is sprayed twice in a rice crop, the first time when the rice plants are 25-30 days old, the second time when the rice plants are 50-55 days old. The cost of planting green fungus is about 100,000 VND/ha, about 5 times lower than using pesticides, saving farmers from 700,000 VND to 1 million VND/ha in a rice crop. When sprayed on rice plants, green fungus will parasitize and develop on the bodies of insects, killing insects, especially brown planthoppers, leaf rollers, and armyworms.
Ms. Le Thi Nhu Thuy, Deputy Head of the Plant Protection Department of Hau Giang province, said that the project of applying green mushrooms on rice plants was implemented by the Department from the 2010-2011 Winter-Spring crop at 8 locations, and in the 2011 Summer-Autumn crop at 12 locations. People were supported with raw materials and were instructed on how to sow and use mushrooms in the fields.
In the 2012 Winter-Spring rice crop, the Department carried out 17 green mushroom cultivation sites for about 250 hectares, supporting part of the raw materials and providing technical guidance to farmers. In the green mushroom cultivation sites in previous crops, people have grown green mushrooms themselves for use in the rice fields.
Because green mushrooms are highly effective in preventing pests on rice plants, do not affect the health of users, contribute to protecting the environment in the fields, especially reduce production costs for farmers, the Plant Protection Department of Hau Giang province is planning to expand the green mushroom cultivation model, instructing many farmers on how to implement and use green mushrooms in the upcoming rice crops./.
According to Vietnam+
