Digital Transformation Upgrades Edible Fungi Industry in Lingbi County, Boosting Rural Vitality

According to People’s Daily Online, Lingbi County in Anhui Province is advancing the digital and intelligent upgrading of its traditional edible fungi sector, leveraging digital technologies to reshape modern agricultural production. As one of China’s major grain production bases and the country’s third-largest Agaricus bisporus production hub, the county has built a pillar local industry that drives rural economic growth and household income growth.

Modernised production workshops in Yangtuan Town feature real-time digital monitoring systems that track temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide density throughout the growing process. Local enterprises have adopted advanced industrial transformation practices and introduced enterprise resource planning systems since August 2023. After two years of iterative optimisation, the upgraded sixth-generation system integrates inventory management, harvesting recording and product grading functions. Technical staff adjust growing environments remotely via intelligent terminals with real-time data alerts, ensuring consistent and stable mushroom cultivation conditions.

Digital management has also achieved full product traceability. Every batch of Agaricus bisporus is assigned a unique digital identifier, recording detailed information covering cultivation workshops and production personnel. The adoption of systematic digital operation has lifted local mushroom output by 25 percent, substantially improving production efficiency and product stability compared with traditional planting modes.

The industrial upgrading has fostered a complete local industrial chain and generated diverse local jobs in mushroom picking, workshop maintenance, packaging and warehousing. It enables rural residents to secure stable incomes without leaving hometowns. Many local villagers take full-time positions at local biotechnology enterprises, gaining steady salaries and inclusive welfare benefits while taking care of their families.

Lingbi County has developed an innovative green development model centred on coordinated ecological and industrial progress. The integrated planting and recycling mechanism optimises local agricultural resource utilisation and supports sustainable rural development. The digital transformation of the edible fungi sector represents a practical exploration of new quality productive forces in rural agriculture.

The county will continue promoting digital agricultural upgrading and optimising the whole industrial chain of characteristic edible fungi. Continuous technological iteration and industrial standardisation will further unlock the incremental value of local rural industries. The refined operational model will deliver more industrial dividends to local residents and form replicable development experience for rural revitalisation across agricultural regions.