August is the beginning of harvest season for Sun Guoquan, a farmer in Lianglong township, Yuyao county, Zhejiang province.

On Tuesday, he started to collect the spore powder of lingzhi mushrooms that were planted in his Dongli Farm greenhouse in April. Sun estimates that his 0.27 hectare of mushrooms will produce 150 to 200 kilograms of spore powder annually and return 6,000 yuan ($870) per kg.

The red, kidney-shaped mushroom is highly prized for its health benefits.

Sun hopes all the lingzhi spore powder will be collected before October, which he then intends to sell on WeChat. "Nowadays, people are more aware of their health and fitness. They don't only take health products when they are sick. Given the growing market and the fact that no other farmer has planted lingzhi before, I wanted to try," he said.

Local farmers such as Sun have benefited from land reclamation projects in recent years that have turned the once largely barren land in the hilly county into a productive agricultural area.

Fan Sensheng, an official with the Yuyao natural resources bureau, said the county government is encouraging farmers to grow products with a higher yield and value.

Zhu Zhongjiu, head of the township, said the township has given 20 hectares of farmland to farmers and developed 733 hectares of well-equipped and planned farmland.