Katima Mulilo
A group of ten rural women from the flood-prone constituency of Kabbe South were recently trained on how to sustain their households by growing mushrooms.
The training was initiated by Kabbe South Constituency Councillor John Likando, who says after conducting research and learning that mushrooms are easy to grow and that currently there is a good market and demand for the edible fungi, he decided to train the selected group of women from his constituency.
The training was organised by his office, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, that facilitated the training so as to show the trainees how to grow mushrooms. According to Likando, the training was organised by his office after learning that most projects funded by the regional council are not expanding, because people do not always have the necessary training.
Likando also said rural women – particularly those from flood-prone areas – were chosen, because mushrooms can be successfully grown in those areas.
“I thought this mushroom project is valuable for rural women, because considering the change of climate in terms of farming, mushrooms seem to survive – especially in our flooding areas – and the women can also do other activities, while they are farming with mushrooms,” Likando enthused.
Trainees were very excited about the new information and vowed to use the skills attained to successfully grow mushrooms for own use and possibly to sell the surplus.
“We’re very excited with what we’ve learned and from here we will go and start growing mushrooms. From what we’ve learned, I’m very confident that we will succeed. We tried many projects, but now I can say growing mushrooms is much easier than growing vegetables, like tomatoes and spinach,” said Mulela Saisai, one of the women who underwent the training.
According to Linus Kwenani from the agriculture ministry, who facilitated the training, the process of growing mushrooms typically takes only three months from growing seeds to harvesting. Kwenani added that his hope is to train as many rural women as possible.
“After this training we will do some follow-ups to see their failures and successes, so that they shouldn’t draw back from this programme. We’re looking forward to training more farmers to be involved in mushroom cultivation,” he said.