Take Best Practices to Farmers in Rural Ghana

Since opening its doors in 2014, the Frances Mueller and Virginia Lageschulte Training Centre has trained 120 people in six different agro-enterprises: rearing rabbit, poultry, grass cutter and snail, as well as vegetable and mushroom farming. Twelve of the trainees (10%) have established commercial mushroom production.

The mushroom business was initially lucrative, but the producers were soon confronted with challenges: as more people went into the industry, the demand for spawns began to exceed the supply. The problem was compounded as low quality spawns with poor germination found their way onto the market. The smallholder farmers lost huge sums of money due to bad spawns.  Understandably, this adversely affected farmers’ interest and many faced returning to unemployment. 

Through a partnership with the Farmer-to-Farmer program, two skilled volunteers from the United States, Dr. Khalid M. Hameed and Dr. Henry Van Tuyl Cotter, traveled to Ghana to train farmers on spawn production so they wouldn't have to rely on untrustworthy sources any longer. Drs. Hameed and Cotter also shared their expertise on marketing mushrooms with those in attendance. 

For two weeks in May, twenty four (24) participants learned about the best practices in mushroom production. Participants included practicing mushroom producers, Self-Help staff members, and students from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Most participants had no more than senior high school education, and enjoyed the opportunity to access free higher-level education.

Held in the Plant Pathology section of KNUST, the training was 80% practical and 20% theory. Participants learned how to prepare potato dextrose agar, malt agar, tissue culture, autoclaving, inoculation, and spawning, as well as environmental conditions suitable for incubation and fruiting. Good marketing practices such as branding, packaging, handling and pricing were also reviewed.

During the practical labs, participants produced over 2,000mls of agar which was used to prepare tissue culture using oyster mushroom, which is the most commonly produced among training center graduates. The training also provided an opportunity to produce tissue cultures for other mushroom species to diversify businesses. These cultures were used to inoculate sorghum and millet in plastic bags to produce spawns.

At the end of the training, participants were given cultures and spawns for multiplication. The participants shared their gratitude with the experts for making the knowledge and skills involved in spawn production accessible even for those with limited formal education. They were extremely thankful for the opportunity offered them.

Three of the participants in particular, Osei, Vivian and Ohene, are making significant progress after the training. They are working with the Plant Pathology Section of KNUST to produce spawns for their own use and also for marketing. Within the first month following training, Ohene had already produced over thirty petri dishes (150ml) of mother culture and twenty (20) jars (800mls) of mother spawns. He is presently producing 400 bottles (120,000mls) of spawn which he will use both for his own production and for sale to farmers who opt not to specialize in spawn production. 

This skilled training has rekindled the spirit of the Plant Pathology section to play a lead role in the production of high quality spawns to alleviate the sufferings of farmers. The section has produced its first pure spawn after the training. Festus, a KNUST staff member, promises that this will be sustained to curb incidents of low quality and shortage of spawns among mushroom farmers in Ghana.

This training represents an important next step for the Centre as we help farmers who are prepared to deepen their knowledge access the information they need, and help ensure a stable supply of mushroom spawn for future trainees. Thank you for your support, which helped make this free training available to farmers like Osei, who are working to better provide for their families!

Links:

• Share your skills as a Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteer

For fifteen years, Osei worked as a timber merchant. He would go to the forest to cut down trees, send them to his factory, and cut them into smaller sizes both for local use and also for export. But due to deforestation, there are fewer trees to cut and the timber business is no longer lucrative. Besides, for the past five years, Ghana has suffered a major power crisis which has led to the collapse of many industries that rely on a regular source of electricity including Osei’s timber factory.

Osei and his wife have four children; two boys and two girls, ages 30, 27, 22 and 10 years old. Though he is now 53 years old, he has no plans to retire since his children are still schooling. With the collapse of his factory, finding an alternative source of livelihood is a must.

On February 26, 2015, Osei enrolled at the Fran Mueller and Virginia Lageschulte Training Centre (FMVLTC) and learned how to produce mushrooms using sawdust.  He was greatly relieved to discover that the stockpile of sawdust at the factory site could be used to produce mushroom to generate revenue. In the past, he would set the sawdust on fire to dispose of it, which caused considerable environmental pollution and lung infections. Neighbours complained each time he burnt sawdust. Now this practice is no more.

Now, a year later, Osei has three employees including his wife and two local men, and together they produce 1,500 bags every month. It costs three cedis ($0.75) to produce one bag of mushrooms, which is then sold for 8 - 10 cedis ($2 - $2.50). Demand for his produce is high: he is currently working to fulfil an order to supply 10,000 bags of spawned compost.

Osei also learned how to rear snails at the FMVLTC and this second business is also picking up gradually. The spread of knowledge goes beyond Osei: his friends who were also in the timber business are now leaning from him how to produce mushroom and rear snails as well.

As present production rates, Osei will utilize approximately 17 tons of sawdust annually which otherwise would have been burnt to pollute the atmosphere. With his friends following his lead and turning their sawdust into mushroom production as well, indiscriminate burning of sawdust and the associated atmospheric pollution will be reduced, and lung-related diseases among children living in timber mill communities will be reduced as well.

Saving the environment while earning a living constitutes sustainable development, but  still we know our work is not done: with our forest almost depleted, an alternative growth medium must be found. After the initial successes Solomon experienced in producing mushrooms in rice straw, the FVTC is currently supporting a student from Kwadaso College of Agriculture to study the performance of rice straw as a growth medium for mushroom production.  The results of the study will be shared widely to ensure all practicing mushroom producers can put this new knowledge into action. 

**JUNE 15TH IS GLOBALGIVING BONUS DAY!  All donations to this project from $10 - $1,000 are eligible for a 50% match on June 15th only, starting at 9AM Eastern / 8AM Central, while funds last!!  Set a calendar reminder now to multiply the impact of your gift & empower the next farmer like Osei!**

Links:

• Like us on Facebook for the latest updates from the field
• Follow us on Instagram