DJ Bhat Fungi

My visit to Dali University, Yunnan, China, as Visiting Professor….. Part-6

We visited Yunnan Mushroom World Biotechnology Co Ltd. in Kunming, China

On completion of my 2-week brief assignment of Visiting Professorship at the Institute of Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity, College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, Dali University, Yunnan, China, I and my wife got readied to return to India, end of August 2017. Besides our routine luggage, our bags were filled with packets of green tea of varied taste. I was singularly fascinated sipping multitude varieties of green tea in China. Prof Su patiently explained the subtle differences of these exotic varieties of teas, in colour, taste and aroma, the prime of these being the ‘Puerh Tea’. I believe Puerh tea, fermented by a native strain of Aspergillus acidus, is produced only in Yunnan Province, China…

A couple of days before, our friend Mr Zonglong informed that Dr. Qi Zhao (nicknamed Papaya) who was earlier a research student at Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand and presently a successful mushroom entrepreneur in Kunming desired that we visit his mushroom farm on our way back home. I tried to figure out the face of this person from my memory box and realised the brief interactions that I had with Papaya in Chiang Rai. Invitation to visit to a mushroom cultivation centre, my excitement automatically rose beyond boundaries……

Thanking Prof Su and her students, we left Dali by car at 9:00 am. Pleasant weather and the same Dali-Kunming 6-lane motorway; we reached Kunming at 1:30 pm. Nearing the city, the cab drove us straight to ‘Yunnan Mushroom World Biotechnology Co. Ltd.’, located in the outskirts of city of Kunming, on the bank of Dianchi Lake, another large highland lake in Yunnan Province. As we entered the Mushroom Farm, Papaya received us with a broad smile and warm handshake. He profusely thanked me and my wife for accepting his invitation and took us straight to the dining hall where his wife had arranged an elaborate lunch, main items being varied types of mushrooms freshly harvested from his farm.

It was a hot-pot lunch on a revolving dining table fitted with many induction plates. The hot-pot in front of us had noodles in boiling water to which curry-ingredients were added. Dr Jack, another old student of MFU and friend, joined us for lunch. Papaya assisted us to put sliced vegetables and different types of mushrooms which included Auricularia fuscosuccinea, Morchella sextelata, Phallus indisiatus, Pleurotus eryngii, Tremella aurentialba and tofu into the hot-pot. We ate plenty of mushrooms and tofu and it was indeed a memorable lunch. My experience eating mushrooms has so far been limited only to or button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) which is very common in India.

After this luxurious mushroom meal and lots of green tea, we set out to Papaya’s mushroom farm. It is a newly set-up, one-year old, high-tech, temperature-humidity-controlled mushroom cultivation centre, spread over a few acres area. I was fascinated seeing his diligence, ingenuity and organisational skills in running the system. Everything operated like a clock in his farm, for time and speed. Mushroom cultivation is not an easy task; it’s a very sensitive crop. The mushroom strains used for large-scale cultivation by Papaya are his own collections from the wild and subsequently domesticated and improved by him. Mostly subtropical species, he harvests a sizable crop which amounts to a few tons per week and is sold either fresh or processed. I was spell bound watching the large-scale cultivation of ear mushroom (Auricularia), oyster mushroom (Pleurotus), cauliflower mushroom (Tremella) and bracket mushroom (Ganoderma) in his farm. Seeing Papaya’s firm is a great learning. Driving to the city of Kunming in the evening, he hosted us a dinner, before parting. I and my wife thanked him for his hospitality and wished best of luck in his future adventures.

We spent some time with our good friend Dr Sam, a specialist in macrofungi working in Kunming Institute of Technology, who came specially to see us...! End of the day, I felt deeply happy and blissfully contented seeing these many young, highly talented, dynamic, mycologists from different Asian countries with whom friendship blossomed following my academic visits to Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand, and College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, Dali University, China.

Next day, Mr Zonglong, who saw that we were taken care of so well all through, escorted us to Kunming International airport from where we flew back to Delhi and Goa.... The excitement and joy derived of academic interactions with students of mycology whom I met, places seen, foods tasted, knowledge gained and above all human values earned during this brief trip to Dali University are truly remarkable and profoundly huge......