At a black fungus planting base in Juancheng county, Shandong province, farming expert Huo Daoxian gave an on-site lecture on Feb 21 to a group of growers, saying "Sterilization is a crucial step in the process of growing black fungus, aiming to eliminate impurities and insect eggs in the culture medium".

"Common sterilization methods include high-pressure steam sterilization and atmospheric pressure steam sterilization," said Huo, chairman of Shoujia black fungus planting professional cooperative with 15 years of cultivation experiences, to the onlookers in Mazhuang village. He added: "After sterilization, the cultivation bag is placed in a greenhouse, naturally cooled to the room temperature, and then inoculated in a sterilized environment".

This voluntary "field classroom" was organized by Yinma town in grain-producing Juancheng, aiming to offer a targeted and precise "technical feast" — through a method of "classroom theoretical teaching + interactive Q&As" — on the cultivation techniques of Auricularia auricula, a type of black fungus.

Huo passed his knowledge on black-fungus substrate selection, strain preparation, inoculation management, pest control and other key links to the onlooking growers.

This "field classroom" volunteer activity for rural vitalization is one of Yinma town's practices aimed at effectively connecting volunteer services with the needs of farmers.

In Zhangtang village, a technical personnel from the town's Agricultural Comprehensive Service Center explained to onlookers on Feb 20 ways on wheat field management, telling them to focus on drought resistance, disease prevention, pest control and weeding.

After listening to the lecture, farmer Sun Laixun said: "This lesson is quite down-to-earth, giving us practical agricultural techniques right in the field with a lot of benefits. I hope to see more such events in the future".s

At Hongxiang Animal Husbandry Co Ltd in Yinma town, two staffers from the Yinma Town Livestock Station, provided in-depth explanations to farmers on Feb 21 on structured animal husbandry, animal epidemic prevention, and greenhouse temperature in the early stage of egg chicken breeding.

Wei Mingjie, who is in charge of the Agricultural Comprehensive Service Center in Yinma town, stressed: "In the next step, Yinma town will continue to use 'field classrooms' as a bridge, bringing tangible benefits and assistance to local farmers and breeders".

As a farming area, Juancheng has a cultivation land of over 65,884.35 hectares, and a plantation land of more than 12,967.3 hectares. Back in 2023, its output value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishing reached 6.516 billion yuan ($917.7 million), an annual increase of 4.5 percent.