Women in Musanze, Nyabihu and Rubavu districts are turning mushroom farming into a growing source of income while contributing to improved nutrition and soil fertility.
Women account for 79 per cent of Rwanda’s agricultural workforce, making their participation in agricultural innovation important to improving food security, nutrition and rural livelihoods.
At Adeline Umukunzi’s mushroom enterprise in Musanze District, customers buy fresh mushrooms while farmers purchase organic fertiliser produced from mushroom-growing waste.
What was once discarded has become another source of income.
Umukunzi’s journey began in 2018 after she completed secondary school. The 35-year-old joined 10 other young people to form a savings group, with each contributing Rwf200 a week.
After four months, they had saved Rwf50,000, which they used to rent a small house for Rwf5,000 and start a mushroom business in Kamutara Village, Cyivugiza Cell, Muko Sector.
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They invested in 100 mushroom-growing units, each costing Rwf500, and harvested mushrooms worth Rwf180,000.
The members later established individual businesses, with Umukunzi founding KUM Better Company Ltd.
She begins harvesting seven to 15 days after production starts, with harvesting continuing for about three months. Each growing unit produces between one and two kilogrammes, with mushrooms harvested three times a week.
"Production has doubled. I can harvest 400 kilogrammes a month. Currently, a kilogramme of fresh mushrooms sells for Rwf4,000,” she said.
At that production level, her company records gross monthly sales of about Rwf1.6 million. It supplies hotels, restaurants and customers in neighbouring markets, including the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Umukunzi is also looking beyond fresh mushrooms.
"We are already making sambusas, but we want to establish a processing unit to turn mushrooms into flour,” she said.
She trains women’s cooperatives, teenagers and single mothers in mushroom cultivation and says she has trained about 2,000 young people. Income from the business has also enabled her to pursue university studies in general nursing in DR Congo.
Mushrooms help tackle malnutrition
Beyond income generation, mushroom farming is helping some families diversify their diets.
Claudine Manirakiza, a mother in Gakenke District, said adding mushrooms to her child’s meals contributed to improvements in his health.
"My child was at risk of malnutrition. His skin had a yellowish colour, and he was approaching the red category. He was two years old but looked like a child of one and a half,” she said.
"Today, he is healthy, aged four, attending nursery school and scoring more than 60 per cent in class.”
Manirakiza prepares mushrooms as a sauce for her child and has also received training in mushroom cultivation.
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Diane Iradukunda, acting head of child development, protection and promotion at the National Child Development Agency, said Rwanda’s 32,756 early childhood development centres, attended by more than 1.15 million children, contribute to efforts to fight malnutrition and stunting.
She said balanced meals, health monitoring, nutrition education and dietary diversity can improve children’s nutrition, cognitive development and readiness for school.
Mushroom waste becomes organic fertiliser
Umukunzi has also diversified into organic fertiliser production at a second site in Mata Village, Kabirizi Cell, Gacaca Sector.
Her enterprise employs six people in mushroom cultivation and eight in fertiliser production, in addition to about 70 casual workers hired every three months.
"I supply organic fertiliser to potato and tomato farmers. I produce 20 tonnes every three months and sell it at Rwf45 per kilogramme,” she said.
That translates into about Rwf900,000 in fertiliser sales every three months.
Alphonsine Twizerimana, a member of a women’s cooperative in Cyuve Sector, Musanze District, said fertiliser made from mushroom waste has improved crop productivity.
"When we use organic fertiliser made from mushroom waste, the tomato harvesting period extends from three months to six months,” she said.
The cooperative grows tomatoes on 2,200 square metres under greenhouses, where it harvests about 20 tonnes, and also cultivates tomatoes outdoors on two hectares.
"Production increases by 30 per cent when we use this fertiliser,” Twizerimana said.
She added that the cooperative’s potato yield has increased from 11 tonnes to 17 tonnes per hectare. It buys 20 tonnes of mushroom-waste fertiliser each farming season at Rwf45 per kilogramme.
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Under the Fifth Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation, Rwanda aims to increase organic fertiliser production from 8.5 million tonnes in 2024/25 to 15.2 million tonnes by 2029.
Jean Claude Izamuhaye, head of the Crop Innovation and Technology Transfer Department at the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board, said farmers’ organisations, cooperatives, women and young people should be more involved in developing and adopting agricultural innovations.
"We face several challenges, including soil degradation and pressure on natural resources. We need to move from ideas to practical solutions,” he said.
RAB is promoting mushroom cultivation both as a food source and as a means of producing organic fertiliser.
Available figures indicate that 32 companies and 20 cooperatives are involved in mushroom production, with annual output estimated at about 523 tonnes.
Supporting women farmers through innovation
The initiatives come as the world marks the International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026, which highlights women’s contribution to agriculture and barriers that continue to limit their participation and benefits.
Speaking at a Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture science media café, Vivian Atakos, Global Engagement and Policy Lead at the CGIAR Gender Accelerator, said the initiative provides an opportunity to recognise women’s contribution to food systems while identifying areas where more support is needed.
"Women’s contributions to food systems need greater recognition and support to ensure they benefit from the systems they help sustain,” she said.
Atakos said agricultural innovations should reduce inequalities rather than increase women’s workloads and unpaid labour.
"Innovations should reduce, rather than increase, women’s time burden and unpaid work. Women should be involved in identifying problems and designing, testing and promoting solutions,” she said.
She added that women also need greater access to finance, information, technology and markets.
Nyabihu, Rubavu farmers embrace circular production
In Nyabihu and Rubavu districts, Moulins du Nil Blanc Ltd, a social enterprise founded by biologist Zilipa Nyirabyago in 2012, is using coffee-processing waste and other agricultural residues to grow mushrooms.
The enterprise initially produced 500 mushroom spawn units a month but has increased capacity to 6,000 units, selling each at Rwf1,000.
"We grow coffee on one hectare and work with other coffee farmers to obtain coffee husks. After harvesting, we use the husks to prepare mushroom-growing materials,” Nyirabyago said.
"After harvesting the mushrooms, the remaining waste is converted into organic fertiliser, which is also used on coffee farms. It is a circular economy.”
The company has increased fresh mushroom production from 214 kilogrammes to more than 1,500 kilogrammes per quarter. It also uses earthworms to convert organic waste into about three tonnes of nutrient-rich fertiliser every month.
Annually, the enterprise uses 70 tonnes of coffee pulp, 20 tonnes of sawdust, seven tonnes of soya straw and 75 tonnes of cotton husks.
It supplies fertiliser and mushroom-growing materials to three cooperatives and about 400 smallholder farmers, 80 per cent of whom are women and young people.
The company says composting and vermicomposting have helped it adopt regenerative agricultural practices across its three-hectare farm while reducing expenditure on mineral fertilisers and pesticides.
It reports annual savings of Rwf90,000 from reduced mineral fertiliser use and Rwf68,000 from replacing pesticides with vermiliquid and biological alternatives.
The enterprise has also begun processing mushrooms into powder for use in vegetables, porridge and other foods.
The products are awaiting certification and shelf-life testing as the company continues selling fresh mushrooms to local markets and DR Congo.