At the morchella, or morel mushroom farm in Fengyang village – located in Qingyuan county in Lishui, in East China's Zhejiang province – the hands are currently out and about, hard at it picking the fresh and juicy mushrooms.

"At present, there are 50-100 kilograms of morchella produced at the base every day," said owner Chen Qixin.

"Some of the fresh mushrooms will be sold, the rest will be dried and stored and sold later when the market is better," Chen added.

Chen Qixin carefully checks the morchella planted at his farm. [Photo/lsnews.com.cn]

Chen Qixin, 26, has carved out a different career path from that of many other young people. Relying on his college major – the cultivation of edible mushrooms – he decided to devote himself to the mushroom industry in his hometown of Qingyuan.

Chen found out about morchella by chance during a study trip to Fujian province in 2018. He learnt that few people in Qingyuan were involved in the morchella industry and the potential market was huge.

In 2020, after investigating many places, he chose Fengyang village, where the temperature and humidity is particularly suitable for growing morchella.

The mushroom only takes about four to five months from planting to harvesting. The time is short and the benefits are high, Chen said. His farm, which has cultivated about 7,000 square meters of morchella, is expected to bring 300,000 yuan ($45,715) income this year.

Nowadays, morchella has become an exciting new industry that has brought the promise of financial opportunity and prosperity to local farmers, thanks to Chen.