Mushroom
RWA 
ENGMashroom Varieties
Mushrooms are a staple of a variety of different culinary traditions and one of the few edible fungi. Although historically humans have consumed a diverse array of mushrooms for nutritional and medicinal purposes, it is only in recent years that this diversity has been brought to the foreground of culinary practice. As commercial cultivation improves, and global markets expand, the variety of readily accessible mushrooms has increased substantially. In order to improve nutrition and diet, especially for disadvantaged populations, mushrooms are relatively rich in proteins and certain vitamins. In addition, they have many mineral elements like sodium, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and iron are the highest. Hence, mushroom plays a highest role in malnutrition reduction and prevention of children stunting
Cultivation of mushrooms can be carried out at a family level with modest investments- particularly to assist those poor families who are most in need of material support.
Mushrooms have a short growth cycle, do not require a large area of land and cost effective as simple technologies can be applied.
2. varieties
There are many types of edible mushrooms but the ones grown in Rwanda are two: pleurotus ostreatus and Ganoderma
- Pleurotus ostreatus is a common edible mushroom grown commercially around the world for food. They are simple to prepare and offer a delicate and sweet flavor.
- Ganoderma is a type of mushrooms which are extensively used in traditional Asian medicines.
Preparing for mushroom growing
Mushroom farming is a simple activity which require the following:
- Securing the spawn and substrate
If you want to grow mushrooms, you need a spawn to start the culture. Spawn: like seed to crop, quality of spawn is one of the most important factors. You can produce your own spawn using a sterile culture, or you can buy ready-to-inoculate spawn, which are carried by suppliers. Producing your own can be cheaper in the long run, but the start-up costs can be high, so chances are buying the ready-to-inoculate spawn is the way to go for you.
- Building a mushroom shed
An ideal mushroom growing house does not necessarily need to be a high-tech, high-cost structure with all automatic control.
Rectangle shed Triangle shed
Fruiting
- Dig a 30 cm deep trench ,
- Disinfect the trench,
- Disinfect cover soil.
- Remove plastic bags from substrates, neatly place substrates into the trench
- Cover the substrate with soil to a depth of 2 cm,
- Cover the trench with plastic net
Fruit management
- Open tunnel at 10 am for half an hour when there is no wind, or 10-15 minutes when the weather is windy;
- Open tunnel again in the evening for the same duration.
- Watering the trench (300cl water/bag) periodically when the soil is dry.
Harvesting: Mushroom
- Mushrooms are ready for harvest 7-10 days after planting;
- Twist the bunch slowly left and right.
- The harvesting size of mushroom depends on the market requirements.
Post-harvest management : Mushroom
Like vegetables and fruits, mushrooms are perishable. After the harvest, they can be conserved at room temperature for not more than 24 hours maximum. Therefore, the grower has to ensure proper packaging and storage for fresh mushrooms and processing for long-term storage as well as value addition. Mushroom processing consists of canning, drying and steeping for long-term storage. Technologies have been developed to make mushroom based food products like mushroom pizza, mushroom curry, mushroom soup powder, biscuits and many more.