YAP proposal #373: A Mushroom-Growing Programme (Emmanuel Awuni, Ghana)

Emmanuel Awuni is my name: a Ghanaian, 35, residing in Kenyasi in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana.

What to Produce

My project is oyster mushroom production. The Mushroom Project is fast becoming a lucrative project that has the potential to reduce unemployment and poverty, especially in my community where mining operations have taken over the farmlands, rendering jobless most of the residents who are farmers.

Mushroom production has six main steps, according to the college of Agriculture Extension service, University of Pennsylvania. These are:

1. Mushroom compost making
2. Finishing the compost
3. Spawning
4. Casing
5. Pinning
6. Cropping

I want to produce the mushroom in commercial quantities, where I will employ at least ten people.

Socio-economically, the mushroom production can create lot of direct and indirect jobs for the youth and women respectively. It is also environmentally friendly because it does not make use of dangerous chemicals.

I will also train other youth in my community in the mushroom project so that they can also acquire employment. This would help sustain the project in my community.

Why Mushrooms?

It is a crop that grows faster. It takes approximately four to five months to realize the profit of the business. It also has a simple and flexible management system.

Also, the mushroom project has a huge market both locally and internationally.

Medically, mushroom consumption can cure diseases such as:

• High Cholesterol level
• Breast cancer
• Prostate cancer
• Diabetes

It is also a high source of proteins, vitamins, minerals, etc.

It has a high profit margin and a low risk. For example, a one hundred square foot growing area can produce an average of 3,000 kg of mushrooms a year. Mushrooms are currently selling for about USD 10 to USD 15 per kg in the international market which is approximately GH¢40 – GH¢60 in Ghana.

In a year’s time, the 100 square foot can give you USD 45,000 or USD 3,750 a month. Translated into Ghana Cedis this is GH¢180,000 a year or GH¢15,000 a month.

How to go about the project

I have already attended a course on mushroom production, organized by AgroQua Consult, a renowned institution that trains people in mushroom, snails, fish, and cut-grass production.

I plan to augment the ideas I already have by consulting the agriculture extension officers in my district for practical knowledge.

I will also take records keeping seriously, and also set up a base line survey to know my initial income, what I am investing, and the initial revenue and to also do a periodic review of my books.

This project, if finally I am selected, can go a long way to achieve some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

This is because most of the problems we have in the world today have a link to poverty. A reduction in poverty would definitely have an impact on each of the goals.

Budget

Code	Item	Amount (USD)
100	Erection of a Structure
101	Land	1,100
102	Cement	550
103	Wood	400
104	Roofing	600
105	Nails	100
106	Workmanship	300
	Subtotal	3,050
200	Purchase of saw-dust	400
300	Purchase of chemical	5,000
400	Purchase of plastics for bagging the compost	500
500	Technical consultancy	300
600	Carriage cost	250
	Total	5,000

 

Blogpost and picture submitted by Emmanuel Awuni (Ghana): awuni68[at]gmail.com

The content, structure and grammar are at the discretion of the author only.

 

This post is published as proposal #373 of “YAP” – our “Youth Agripreneur Project”.

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