Mushrooming in Agribusiness

Making farming a business is a critical factor to making the agricultural sector a lead economic driver. Considering the fact that 80% of Zambia’s population live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihood, it is no wonder that small scale rural farmers are the centre of attention in catalysing the progress of agribusiness.

Existing challenges, such as access to lucrative markets and insufficient price negotiation power among other things, make it hard for farmers to market their produce as individuals. Thus working as Cooperatives or Farmer Groups has proven to be the best platform from which small scale farmers can enhance and benefit from agribusiness skills.

In Maramba township of Livingstone - Southern province, is an elderly people’s farmer group composed of men and women who are care-givers to People Living with HIV&AIDS (PLHA) and; orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs).

This farmer group chose to embrace mushroom-growing because they felt it was among the least labour-intensive and most affordable type of farming that they could do at their age. They are now known as Maramba Community Mushroom Project.

At the table, mushroom is consumed as a vegetable which is rich in vitamin D as well as in protein, most especially when dried. Furthermore, it is also believed to slow down the spread of cancer, HIV&AIDS and even heart disease (http://www.nafis.go.ke).

To the Maramba Community Mushroom Project, however, mushroom also represents a lucrative business for income generation.

Beatrice Kantini is the Chairperson of the Project. She explained that the group was formed in 2004, with the aim to generate income to assist PLHA and OVCs.

“We started with vegetable growing until in 2008 when an organization called ASNAP [Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plant Products] trained us in mushroom growing which we started in the same year,” Ms. Kantini.

The group constructed 3 mushroom growing sheds and began growing selected white mushroom varieties. They were even producing their own spawn. But unfortunately in 2013, all their 3 mushroom sheds got burnt down - an incident which the group still aren’t sure how it was caused but they suspect was an accident.

“We were having a meeting one day and then we heard someone shout fire!fire! And by the time we went there, it was too late for us to save anything…We suspect maybe somebody threw some lit charcoal when they were emptying a fire brazier in a nearby garbage pit and then the fire spread. It happened in July during the dry season,” narrated Mr Nakwambwa Muyangana who is a member of the Maramba Mushroom Project.

But that temporary setback did not deter the group from starting over. In the first instance, some officers from the Smallholder Agribusiness Productivity Program (SAPP) visited the group shortly after the sheds got burnt. SAPP is an agribusiness public-private partnership programme between the Zambian Government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The officers from SAPP who visited the group, disclosed to them that the organization offered matching grants to deserving farmer groups and Cooperatives around the country.

Ms Kantini said that SAPP had expressed interest in the group’s choice of agribusiness and were impressed that they were even supplying the AVANI group of hotels in Livingstone with their mushrooms.

The Chairperson explained that the Ministry of Agriculture Livingstone district office helped the group draft a business plan which they submitted to SAPP as part of their application for a matching grant.

“In November 2013, we applied for a matching grant of K50,000. SAPP first gave us about K9,000 which is what we used to construct the nursery and production house that we are currently using,” Ms Kantini said.

Furthermore AVANI hotel, still popularly known as the Zambezi Sun Hotel in Livingstone, incorporated the group in some agribusiness training which further motivated the Mushroom Project to get back on their feet.

“The hotel wanted to buy some local produce instead of importing because it would be cheaper for them…So they also encouraged us to supply what we were producing to them,” Mr Muyangana added.

Maramba Community Mushroom Project currently has a contract to supply AVANI hotel with 10kg of mushroom on a weekly basis. They added that AVANI also purchases some of the products from their vegetable garden.

Furthermore, the Project has generated enough income to build 3 small semi-detached flats which they have leased to increase their revenue. This in turn has enabled the group to help provide school fees and other school requirements to the close to 100 OVCs that they care for. They have also continued their vegetable growing activities from which they are able to feed PLHA who are unable to fend for themselves.

 “Our long term plan is to put up a recreational hall where children in our community can come and play; and hopefully even open up a pre-school because there are a lot of children here who have lost their parents to HIV&AIDS - these children look up to us for support,” Mr Muyangana said.

END.