There is a need to invest in research and technology transfer, training more farmers on mushroom growing to reduce poverty and malnutrition according to Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB). Juncao technology is one of the technologies that Rwanda is leveraging to scale up mushroom growing according to Audace Hirwa, Director of Documentation, Publication, Communication and Technology Promotion Unit at RAB. The technology was invented by Professor Lin Zhanxi from China’s Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University in the 1980s, and has been shared with over 100 countries, including Rwanda. “Actually using Juncao technology in mushroom cultivation requires mushroom shed, mushroom tubes, and fruiting body management,” he said. The Chinese-invented Juncao technology to grow mushrooms uses low-cost materials. Some of the mushrooms at the China-Rwanda Centre for Agriculture. Photo: Craish Bahizi. Juncao technology uses chopped grass as a substrate for growing edible and medicinal mushrooms and as forage for livestock. The agriculture board is looking to promote the technology to be widely used by integrating mushroom cultivation into the overall development of kitchen gardens at people’s homes. The adoption of Juncao technology in Rwanda consists of research and demonstration activities, introduction and adaptation of suitable JUNCAO grass varieties, training and extension activities, and Post-harvest management, RAB says. About 35,000 mushroom farmers have so far been trained on Juncao technology. The beneficiaries include farmers, women’s associations, cooperatives, youth, orphans, AIDS organizations, Universities, vocational and technical colleges, hospitals, juvenile prison and so on. In order to preserve mushroom yield, officials said, technologies such as Mushroom preservation in salt, mushroom grinding to get powder, mushroom drying, fried mushroom, mushroom packaging, cooking and other processing technology are evaluated at the Rwanda – China technology Demonstration Center. Post-harvest handling Although mushroom cultivation is increasingly becoming popular among the farmers, there are some challenges that need to be addressed, the official said. Post-harvest handling techniques, Hirwa said, are needed to add value to mushrooms so as to avoid losses incurred in mushroom post-harvest. He noted that it will also ensure a sustainable market. “The market for mushroom flour is still very small in Rwanda due to a comparable high investment needed to buy the machinery, such as the mushroom dryer and the grinder,” he said. He said that market challenges such as fluctuations of buying and selling prices also affect mushroom farmers. “To resolve the problem, processing and post-harvest handling will facilitate the scale up of mushroom growing in Rwanda,” he noted. In the past five years, he said, the mushroom industry in Rwanda had low production. He said that currently there are 32 companies and 20 cooperatives that produce around 629.200 tubes and that more than 123 individual farmers are cultivating mushroom tubes. “They harvest around 523,600 tonnes per year. Mushrooms are environmentally very friendly. They produce their own food from agricultural crop residues, and their spent composts/substrates can be used as animal feed, bio-fertilizers, and biogas,” he noted. He said the government of Rwanda is working to ensure the capacity building mushroom growers and producers through the training, research and dissemination of the new strain of mushroom with the target to increase the production. “The edible mushrooms reduce poverty, stunting and malnutrition among children,” he explained, adding that medicinal mushrooms invigorates the body’s immune system response. There are currently three varieties of mushrooms grown in Rwanda while three varieties are under research. “The new varieties will be released soon,” he said. Hirwa said that production of mushrooms requires simple and inexpensive techniques, adding that it doesn’t depend on the season. “Any time a farmer can produce fresh mushrooms according to his or her plan, Mushroom growing requires a small space in production and it can be in a rural area or urban areas,” Mushrooms are considered a cash crop because based on current data, the mushroom production and cultivation in urban areas such as Kigali is much higher than other parts in the country,” he said. Farmers speak out Many people in Rwanda are not aware that mushroom farming is a profitable business that can help fight poverty yet the mushrooms grown in Rwanda are exported across the region, and contribute to improving the health and livelihoods of tens of thousands of farmers and customers. Jeannette Kanzayire, the President of “Twisungane Iwacu Cooperative” with 30 members in Mukingo sector in Nyanza district said the women invest Rwf500 in preparing one mushroom spore. She said that once grown up, one mushroom spore produces between one and two kilogrammes. “We are selling one Kilogramme at Rwf1, 200 and have a market in the rural area and Nyanza town,” she said. She said that they harvest three times a week in a period of three months. “We harvest over 20 Kilogrammes per day every three days. We are about to plant more than 300 mushroom spores,” she said. The cooperative also seeks to invest in mushroom value addition. “It requires huge investment to process mushrooms into flour,” she said. The group has so far secured a machine worth Rwf1.5 million that dries mushrooms. The largest mushroom growing firm is located in Musanze district and owned by Kigali Farms. Constructed at a tune of $1 million in 2016, the firm currently produces an estimated four tonnes per week.
