Author：Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute,Researcher, Hsin-Der Shih

Delicious multi-mushroom cuisine, common on the table, is not only an important source for people to get rich protein, vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber and other nutrients, but also the world's indispensable ingredients for cooking. In Taiwan, mushroom estimation of the annual production of 140,000 tons and the overall output value has exceeded NT$13 billion, accounting for 18% of the total vegetable output value. However, mushroom cultivation is quite hard and labor-intensive, in recent years, the reduction of labor force led to higher labor costs, mushroom industry development challenges. Since 2017, the government promote smart agriculture-related programs to introduce automation, capital communication technology, Internet of Things, production line design and machinery manufacturing technologies into the mushroom production process, so as to develop solutions to problems such as agricultural shortage, help industry solve problems and increase production and efficiency, enhance the overall industrial environment, and promote industrial competitive advantage.

Mushroom pilot industry team performance

The mushroom pilot industry team has completed 11 technical transfers (the simple production technology of liquid spawns, including Phoenix oyster mushroom, Buna-shimeji mushroom, King oyster mushroom, Shiro-shimeji mushroom and Shiitake mushroom; High-performance mushroom production mode;King oyster mushroom species vitality recovery medium formula and preparation technology; Shiitake mushroom species production business technology set), the establishment of 5 demonstration fields (such as Nantou County, the production cooperative of mushroom bacteria, Yuyou Biotech Co., Ltd.), The 10 investments resulted in a total of more than NT$503 million. (This includes Mingzhuyuan Leisure Farm, Beishan Mushroom Farm, Sanchuan Mushroom Farm Production Investment, Yumao Mushroom Farm Production Equipment Investment, Dingtai Mushroom Farm Research and Development Investment, etc.), reducing production costs by at least NT$81.8 million (e.g. Biotech imported fully automated space charter flights to reduce costs by NT$19.2 million, save 44,481 hours (8 hours/day), and increase farmers' income by NT$16.2176 million yuan. In addition to creating the above-mentioned quantitative achievements, it also promotes the intelligent development of the industry, such as the birth of domestic fully automatic charter flights, the promotion of automated processing of mushrooms and the cultivation of environmental control technology, and the establishment of the Mushroom Intellectual Farmers Alliance.

Success story sharing

Domestic intelligent automatic mushroom bag machine

Agricultural testing institute to carry out the mushroom pilot industry plan, through production, learning, research and cooperation to build pp package automation production operation module, and drive the industry to carry out the work of the module industrialization developer. Synergy Automation Machinery Co., Ltd. Which is coached by the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), is a professional customer-based design and development company with automated machine design and manufacturing as its core, and the company was sponsored to obtain the Participation Scheme Subsidy of the Intelligent Agriculture Industry of the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan in 2019. The first year to the company's bag mushroom automation packing equipment as the basis for innovative design with integrated bags, filling, compaction, burrowing, beam ring, bag, basket and other operations of the complete fully automated package production system. The second year of work focuses on the development of the process of product inspection system function, the realization of the entire process of production from space package production to the end of the Internet of Things function, collecting complete big data as production technology upgrading, cultivation management and product development and marketing applications on the database. At present, the set of agricultural test commissioned by the National Formosa University jointly developed automated space package production technology as the basis, and by Synergy Automation Machinery Co., Ltd. Produced and published fully automatic charter flights, is the first set of domestic and has been on-line production of the latest equipment. Stable production speed in 26 to 30 (pack / minute), can be adjusted to customer demand up to 30 (pack / minute) or more, compared to the traditional package production model can save 3 to 4 labor costs, and has high efficiency and stable quality, has been the mushroom farmers and operators alike, the future also look forward to the equipment input to reduce labor costs and increase production (Figure 1)

Importing intelligence drives enterprise efficiency gains

In addition to the development of mushroom production equipment, automation, TARI had paid more actively assist domestic mushroom cultivation operators to import intelligent equipment, in order to improve their production efficiency, create better enterprise benefits, its tutoring industry to the excellent biotechnology, farm as a success story, the Q-Yo farm founder Seven Fang had the background of electronic engineering, so after entering the mushroom industry recognized the value of human resources for the industry, feel that the production of mushrooms should focus on increasing quality rather than production, and therefore use their own cross-border professional background. And with the assistance of the Smart Agriculture Program and TARI, he has imported automation and information equipment to build an intelligent production plant for mushrooms. The farm to change the traditional rely on a large number of human cultivation model, import automated production process equipment, and to meet the growth needs of mushrooms, to ring control facilities and equipment, cultivation to control the whole process of mushroom cultivation temperature, the field more RO reverse osmosis pure water to create a clean, zero-pollution cultivation environment, to provide high-quality and safe and healthy mushroom products (Figure 2). In addition, Q-Yo further invested in fully automated fixed anti-pollution liquid spawn vaccination and space package, automatic shelf and other systems, not only to replace a large number of human needs, but also reduce the risk of contamination, through intelligent management, improve production efficiency, stable quality, alleviate the shortage of labor.

Promote the Mushroom Wisdom Alliance

Facing the trend of global industrial competition, stable supply and consistent quality regulations are one of the key success factors to expand the global market, but in the past, domestic mushroom cultivation operators are mostly single-handed, so they cannot provide standardized products for export, highlighting the integration of mushroom industry to form an alliance important, in December 2020 in the smart agricultural outline plan implementation team of the agricultural testing institute, the Institute of Industry and Research and the Taiwan Institute of Economics to promote and witness the cross-border cooperation of the mushroom intelligence alliance. Through the Shia and agricultural alliance series of cross-domain technology, the integration of intelligent agricultural services and mushroom producers, leading the island mushroom industry competitiveness once again leapt. The participating alliance groups of manufacturers, in the cultivation surface of So Fresh Mushroom Biotechnology Co., in the facility surface of "Classic Environmental Energy Technology Co., Ltd.", in the component side of the " Universal Certification Technology Co., Ltd.", in the system side of the " Biobizlaw Inc.", four operators through substantive cooperation, to jointly promote the mushroom industry standardization, function and international development, through the industrial chain to create a total of innovative value, enhance the scale and efficiency of agricultural enterprises (Figure 3).

The new development of agricultural grain industry

Mushroom industry in the introduction of intelligent technology, due to lack of labor force, so that production efficiency needs to be improved, coupled with the lack of equipment integration system and automation upgrade, resulting in a relatively inadequate quality and specification management, and make the intelligent development of bacteria, cultivation, harvesting, marketing and other limited; It is possible to strengthen the scientific and technological production process, which makes the cultivation yield increase and the production cost decrease. Also, through the integration of automated handling and harvesting operation mode, serial production scheduling and order management decision-making system, to promote product specifications and quality increased, while improving the shortage of mushroom production and improve overall efficiency, and thus accelerate the transformation of the mushroom industry and enterprise management, enhance international competitiveness. Looking ahead to the island's current agricultural and grain industry, in the production stage in the past a large number of rely on labor and farmers experience, so in the average age of farmers continue to climb now, such as mushroom industry as a mirror, began to put into automated production and intelligent management, not only through the introduction of equipment to reduce labor demand, but also through sensing elements with intelligent production to fill the problem of young farmers inexperience, and further assist young farmers to integrate into alliances, through group management, so that small farmers play the role of sand into the tower, In this way, the development of domestic agricultural and grain industry can be a new era, but also let Taiwan excellent agricultural products leap to the international, become a real green gold.

Conclusion

Taiwan mushroom industry in the production of officials to promote agricultural intelligence, gradually from labor-intensive industries to equipment and technology-intensive industries, the future through the wisdom of the agricultural program of continuous investment, will use digital separation technology, extract big data for accurate decision-making and production management, improve production efficiency, the construction of precision cultivation system, as well as the application of expert systems, industrial international layout and digital services, and through the intellectual agriculture alliance to join the relevant industries to form a mushroom-like intellectual ecosystem, whether it is to seize the export of mushrooms, or the whole factory output, can form a national team to expand the international market. Mushroom industry is upgrading, hoping to turn the future through intelligence, and in this wave of global agricultural intelligence out of Taiwan characteristics.