KILIMO CHA UYOGA MKOANI MANYARA.

A local price of dry kg of mushroom  – the basic raw material for

nutritious soup -- stands at Sh 60,000/- and experts predict the

amount could even double in the near future due to its health value.

Often grouped with vegetables, mushrooms provide many of the

nutritional attributes of produce, as well as attributes more commonly

found in meat, beans or grains.

Mushrooms are low in calories, fat-free, cholesterol-free and very low

in sodium, yet they provide important nutrients, including selenium,

potassium, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin D and more.

Introduced two years ago by Farm Africa, an International organization

with its presence in Manyara, mushroom has dubbed ‘the white gold’ by

the farmers who were upset by price uncertainty of other traditional

cash crops.

Growers in Babati rural and Mbulu districts say whereas an acre of

maize used to earn them sh 360,000/- annually, the same area under

mushroom fetches nearly Sh 200 million per annum, a respectable money

in a country where the official average annual income for a farmer is

less than Sh 500,000/-.

Bernard Sambali from Bashneti village says the acre can accommodate

181 mushroom sheds with the capacity to yield 398,888 kg of fresh

mushroom a year worth Sh 199.44 million at the current price of Sh

5,000/- per kg.

Sambali who three years back together with hundreds other farmers

resorted to harvest Nou forest illegally, now he laughs all the way to

the bank, earning Sh 75,000 per week from mushroom sales he grows at a

quarter an acre.

Edmund Stanley and Rosemary Ero both from Harambee Mushroom Group in

Endaw village in Babati Rural are grateful to the Farm Africa, saying

it has transformed their rural lives to the better through the cash

crop.

“Mushroom crop is the best in making soup for mothers who have just

given birth. So we grow mushroom not only to make money, but also for

our consumption” Ms Ero noted.

Edible mushrooms are consumed by humans for their nutritional and

occasionally supposed medicinal value as comestibles.

Christina Mihindi from Hayseng’ village in Mbulu district says: “We

never knew the economic value of mushroom – normally they used to grow

in forest areas but now thanks to Farm African, we can grow them at

home for commercial purposes.”

Farm Africa Communication officer, Goodness Mrema says, for the people

living on the edge of Nou Forest, mushrooms have always been part of

the forest landscape around them.

But until two years ago, she says, the villagers were unaware that the

mushroom on the land beneath their feet was a potential-money-maker

that could offer them alternative income.

With few other options available, forest communities made money from

selling timber for construction or illegal hunting of wildlife within

the thick Nou forest such as gazelles.

Now all have changed thanks to Farm Africa’s work with villagers in

Mbulu and Babati districts for discovering mushroom as a new cash crop

to earn cash-strapped farmers, money through environmentally friendly

businesses that protect, rather than damage, the forest.

Goodness says mushrooms commercial production was the brainchild of

their scheme known as Tanzania Participatory Forest Management Project

(TPFM).

“The idea is to provide an alternative income undertaking to the

community around Nou and Dareda escarpment forests in a bid to

discourage them to destruct forestry” she explained.

As it happened, Farm–Africa had to train the farmers on how to grow

mushrooms, group dynamics and arrange for study tours in a bid to save

the renowned Nou forest from deforestation.

“Mushroom farming has proved a successful business, as the Nou

abundant forest offers up all the materials needed to set up a

Mushroom shed” she said, adding farmers from 13 villages formed an

Association and built a collection centre, which they use for

Training, processing and packaging mushrooms.

“Thanks to our training in how to produce spores, farmers now sell

those too, boosting their earning power even further” Goodness said.

But mushrooms aren’t only for sale – families also have more food to

eat at home.

With time Farm Africa expects the farmers’ association will become

self-sufficient and take over running the business.

“As things stand now, the farmers take their bottles of spores and

newfound knowledge to share with other villages the secret to

protecting their forest” goodness concluded.

By Prince-Josh Adams, Manyara

Adam Ihucha