In March of this year, Stephanie Sakala, the Operations Manager at Maiwase Farm, a subsidiary of Kasalari Development Corporation, and two other workers decided to undergo oyster mushroom growing training at the China-Zambia Agricultural Technologies Demonstration Center (ATDC).
After this training, she started a mushrooming project in June. She said the training was worthwhile and the knowledge acquired will go a long way in ensuring all-round production of mushroom unlike the traditional way of waiting for the rainy season before seeing mushrooms.
The farm, she said, managed to harvest 20 kg of oyster mushroom in the first week which moved to 50 kg and later to over 100 kg.
While acknowledging that the market for oyster mushrooms in Zambia was still a challenge, Sakala expressed confidence that with more sensitizations, Zambians will be able to appreciate it because of the benefits it has compared to traditionally grown mushrooms.
On future plans, she said the farms intend to venture into the growing of other mushrooms such as button mushrooms as well as the production of seeds as currently there is a challenge in accessing the seeds.
Source: english.news.cn