Report on the mushroom cultivation workshops (2012-2014)

Abstract

For the past two decades mushroom cultivation training programmes have been established as yearly training programmes in CSIR-Food Research Institute. Every year at least two training programmes are organised for Church Groups, Associations, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) and individuals from all walks of life, from in and around Ghana and neighbouring countries. Consumption of edible mushrooms dates back several centuries. These are normally picked in the wild when in season. In recent times however, edible mushrooms have attracted much interest not only for its nutritional benefits but as functional foods because of properties they exhibit such as being anti-mutagenic, anti-tumoral, antimicrobial, and able to modulate the immune system, among others (Garcia-Lafuente et al. 2011; El Enshasy et al. 2013). In Ghana, the local fresh mushroom market demand has grown from the initial 25 metric tonnes in 1997 to about 400 metric tons and this figure has been increasing steadily every year. These technical reports hereby reported are the training programmes organised yearly including consultancy services for the Mushroom Growers and Exporters Association of Ghana (MUGREAG). This was conducted for a total of 121 participants within the period between 2012 and 2014 and a total amount of GHc 63,020 was generated