Mushroom farming models can be applied on small acreage and suitablefor all regions of the country as they boast abundant naturalmaterials. Overview by Vietnam Economic News. Arecent prime ministerial decision highlighted mushrooms as a nationalproduct; and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)also signed a national product development project for edible andpharmaceutical mushrooms. This is an importantlegal framework for the country in general and Hanoi in particular tofurther develop mushroom farming models. Foreseeingthe development trend of the mushroom market, right from 2011, themunicipal Department of Science and Technology has supported Thanh CaoKinoko Import Export Co., Ltd to deploy an edible and pharmaceuticalmushroom production project on the company’s three-ha area in Doc Tincommune, Chuong My district. The area was convertedfrom inefficient sericulture to mushroom production. The successfulmushroom farming model will be replicate in many other localities. It isestimated that every year, the company and its member units use from1,000-1,500 tonnes of straw, sawdust, bagasse, stems and cobs to growmushrooms, and produce from 500-700 tonnes of fresh mushrooms worth of10-15 billion VND. “The resources of straw,sawdust, stems and cobs in the commune are enough to produce thousandsof tonnes of mushrooms per year, meeting fresh food demands of PerfumePagoda tourists and Hanoi’s population,” Director of Thanh Cao KinokoImport Export Co., Ltd Duong Thi Thu Hue said. According to the Centre for Plant Biotechnology under the AgriculturalGenetics Institute, with a great number of mushroom farming skilledworkers, relatively widened mushroom markets, and abundant resources ofstraw, sawdust, stems and cobs, Hanoi is fully conditional forproduction of one million tonnes of mushrooms per year. Centre director Dinh Xuan Linh said Hanoi currently has a number ofunits able to produce mushrooms industrially but somehow spontaneouslyand on small scales. Therefore, to replicate mushroom farming models,Hanoi needs to have mushroom development projects and related incentivesto support mushroom producers such as preferential land rent and loans. By a rough reckoning, farming mushroom may yield20-fold higher than farming rice and 10-fold than farming vegetables perha; meanwhile, farmers can utilise resources of straw, sawdust, stemsand cobs. In the coming time, the municipalDepartment of Industry and Trade ought to develop a mushroom developmentproject until 2020 focusing on a number of pilot models forreplication, along with conducting researches for high quality varietiesand promoting mechanization in mushroom production. Mushroom farming models can be applied on small acreage and suitablefor all regions of the country. However, mushroom production requiresimplementation of a series of closed technologies from the stage ofbreeding, material handling, care, harvesting, storage and processing.So, when replicating mushroom farming models in rural areas it isimportant to focus on training and science and technology transfer tofarmers./.