Sustainable Mushroom farming in Farmers Clubs
My name is Primrose Nyabadza and I am 30 years old. I am married with two children. My firstborn is a girl doing grade six and my second son is attending pre-school. I live in ward 19 Mvere village in Mutasa Central. My husband and I are self-employed.
My family relied heavily on farming for consumption and income. However, due to uneven weather patterns, in some seasons we would fail to have enough food to last us until the next farming season. As a family, we always wanted to start a family business but poor resources and capital limited us.
In 2020, the DAPP team then introduced us to mushroom production. My husband and I embraced the idea and raised small capital to kick start the project. Under proper guidance from DAPP that same year, my family started growing the grey oyster mushroom.
Teachings from DAPP guided us to first plant 8 kgs of mushrooms and my first harvest was 23kgs of mushrooms after 23 days. I grew my mushroom 3 days apart so that when its harvest time, I was able to harvest at least 3 times a week.
In total weekly, I harvest over 45kgs which I sell to local people and supermarkets. Some people purchase mushrooms at my house at a wholesale price of 0.50USD cents and a retail price of 1 USD per 200 grams.
The demand for mushrooms in my community is very high such that sometimes I fail to meet the demands due to a shortage of inputs. The highest amount I got from my mushroom business after three months was 500 USD.
The mushroom business helped us to bounce back on our feet after our house caught fire and everything in it was burnt to ashes. Using our profits we managed to buy all necessary property, blankets, clothes and food. Currently, I can pay my children’s school fees, improve food security and general upkeep at my house all because of the mushroom business.
Using some of my profits from mushroom production, I managed to join a fruit tree nursery group business of six female members who are my neighbours but the project is still in the initial stages. I am the group leader. We have varieties of fruit tree nurseries such as avocados, peaches, apples, pears and mangoes.
We hope to reach the expected 40 000 trees target we set and start selling the nurseries. Each tree will be priced at one dollar which will profit me and fellow group members. As the leader of the group, I have already started looking for more markets for our tree nurseries using the link from my mushroom business.
