Mushroom Workshop for Women’s Empowerment

Eco-Agric Mutual Aid

Director: Josephine Nakakande

Population Served: Critically vulnerable and absolutely poor women and girls in Uganda

Email: ecoagricuganda@gmail.com

Phone: +256(0)772586495

websites: https://www.ecoagricuganda.org 

Location - Hoima district of South Western Uganda

Project Description:

We will establish a women’s group of fifteen people. Each woman will get ten fruiting mushroom blocks to grow - they will put the mushroom blocks in a shaded area that we will help her construct.

After two weeks, women will start harvesting the mushrooms. 50% of the mushroom harvest is used to buy food and home needs and 50% of the mushroom harvest is saved weekly. Money saved from the mushrooms is used to buy the women more mushroom growing blocks to continue growing mushrooms, with some blocks given to women in newly-formed groups.

The workshop starts with group formation, then four trainings are conducted, followed by four monitoring visits.

The four trainings are as follows:

  • First training is on shade construction,

  • Second training is on mushroom growing as a source of income and food

  • Third training is on proper management of mushroom blocks, this includes watering and harvesting

  • Fourth training is mushroom harvesting plus group saving explanation.

Budget

  • Three (3) substrate bags with cotton husks - $60

  • Wood & screws to make the mushroom blocks - $20

  • Ingredients to sterilize the mushroom blocks - $10

  • Mushroom spawns - $60

  • Fuel & transportation costs - $50

TOTAL - $200

We want to help 1000 women grow mushrooms to support themselves

Sustainability

The project provides sustainability to the women in the workshop.

Eco-Agric Mutual Aid makes the spawn, we make the gardens and we give the women colonized mushroom blocks, for free. Each block will provide the woman with $6-$12. From each block, a woman will pay back $2 - one dollar to buy a new fruiting block and another dollar for paying back the fruiting block that will be passed on to another woman.

Materials used in making the fruiting block cost only $0.6 (mushrooms do not need fertilizers). To ensure sustainability, each group has a trainer to support the women.

Eco-Agric Mutual Aid has been promoting mushroom growing since 2010. We have a well-established mushroom growing center where it makes spawn. We are well experienced in mushroom growing, and we also with a mycologist @myctysonmushrooms that trains our team monthly.