Low Cost System For Growing Mushroom

In 2015 a student of Egerton University in Kenya Pauline Njeru developed a mushroom growing system based on affordable readily available materials.

Njeru’s innovation offers farmers a low cost method to prepare sterilized substrate, the material in which mushrooms are grown. Maize stalks and wheat or rice straw are chopped, packed into jute sacks (gunny bags) and soaked for 12-24 hours. Other ingredients such as wheat fibre and agricultural lime are then added, before the sacks are sterilized by steaming them in oil drums. Having added a spoonful of mushroom spawn (seeds), (this can be obtained from federal or state ministries of agriculture, it's also available at Yaba college of Technology) , the sacks are placed in a dark, well ventilated room or shed in order for the mushrooms to fully colonise the substrate. According to Njeru, a simple outdoor shed constructed from maize stalks and roofed with banana leaves or grass, is a perfect option for this ‘incubation room.’

Farmers are able to know when colonisation has taken place, as the sack turns white. At this stage the sacks are moved to the ‘fruiting house,’ where they are exposed to light and high humidity (which can be achieved by putting several water basins in the room). For small-scale operations, farmers may be able to convert the shed used for incubation to become the fruiting room.