Oyster Mushroom Cultivation by Urban Youth in Addis Ababa As an Income Generating Activity

Azeb Worku Youth Program Officer Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) Addis Ababa

Urban Centers - Key Global Facts

Urban p populations: p by y 2030 LAC 75%; this will swell to 83% Asia and Pacific from 37% to 53% Africa from 38% to 55% Globally 20 cities have > 10 mill people In 2000, , 1.9 billion lived in cities of the DC. In 2030, this will grow to 3.9 billion Currently, city and sub-urban farmers supply food to about Currently 700 million city dwellers

Projection of Human Population in Ethiopia (million) 2002 Total U b Urban 65 8 2025 140 36 Increase 115.4% 350%

Addis Ababa
Founded in 1886; Total land area = about 54,000 ha P Population l ti about b t 3 million; illi growing i at t > 5% PA About 33% households are women headed Unemployment p y 47%, & 65% have no skills About 58% of the unemployed are female, highest among youth About 60 60,000 000 street children High dependency ratio 69% Over 75% commercial sex workers infected with HIV Child Children < 5 years suffer ff f from wasting ti (5%) and d stunting (34%); under five mortality is 12% y Produces about 400,000 tons of solid waste annually

Projected population and food demand for Addis Ababa

Year Popn p (Mill) 2 40 2.40 3.33 4.25 5.08 Cereals (Mill tons) 5 6 5.6 7.5 9.6 11.5 Meat (Mill tons) 0 53 0.53 0.70 0.89 1.07 Milk (Mill litres) 115 6 115.6 154.2 196.7 235.7

2000 2010 2020 2030

Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD)

ISD recognizes the importance of involving young

people l i in th the d development l t process, particularly ti l l i in efforts that lead to poverty reduction and rehabilitating of the environment
ISD, through its youth team, aims to help young people

to get organized and support them to develop their skills and to improve their livelihoods in a sustainable manner
In I addition, dditi ISD encourages organic i urban b agriculture i lt

for income generation, with particular focus on the youth and women

Characteristics of Youth Associations

Are self-organized have legal entity and bylaws C Committed itt d t to cause are desirable d i bl partners. t Formed by themselves and others created with ISD support Characterized as out of school, jobless and without assets and money Most live with their parents p The conducive factors for their group formation are:

From same schools; active members of school environmental clubs Same age and mixed sex groups Willing to work by self-employing themselves Grouped themselves for collective action

Have interest in environmental activities and urban agriculture Use U environmentally i t ll f friendly i dl and d cheap h agricultural i lt l system t Have small piece of land provided by Kebele administration

Objectives
In line with ISD objectives, j the following g general g and specific objectives were developed for the project
G General: l To identify potential solutions by engaging the youth in low input urban agricultural activities for income generation ti Specific: p To develop an intensive, market-oriented, mushroom production system for income generation by youth g p groups

Mushroom Production
The idea did not come at once (I had a plan of growing mushroom

some 8 years back while living abroad) The idea was repeatedly shared with the youth Expert consultation (Dr. Dawit) was made on feasibility of growing mushroom under the urban youth circumstances. During the discussion the following points were considered Possibility of integration with existing activities Seed (spawn) source Sustainability S t i bilit Market opportunity Knowledge availability on how, where, cost and when Initial requirement to start the business Later, the concept idea was discussed with concerned bodies of the institute and developed into a project proposal for funding. The p project j was finally y funded

Implementation
Beneficiary Identification

Selection was made based on past interventions Nib Environmental Protection Association and Youth Development Association of Compost and Flower Flower, who work in Yeka sub-city Kebele 03 / 04 were chosen The beneficiaries were young women Planned to empower three young women from each youth group

Briefing on the Activity to the Youth Associations

the necessity of knowledge and skill acquirement, seed source, market linkage, profitability and in general, benefits were discussed

Beneficiaries

Key Concern
They y were familiar to the wild mushrooms (they ( y live

way above the French embassy, close to the hills)

They questioned the edibility of mushrooms They were skeptical about the opportunities too and

there was resistance

Two-way dialogue continued until they internalized it

and were convinced

Capacity Development - Training

Knowledge source - Dr. Dawit Abate, AAU, Biology department. Training T i i was d designed i df for 12d 12days (D (Dec 2007 and dF Feb b 2008) Ten youth members and two staff from ISD participated in the

training. A simple guide manual on oyster mushroom cultivation was prepared for the purpose by Dr. Dawit The training components were: Simple lectures on basics of mushroom cultivation Mushroom cultures Mushroom spawn making Preparation of substrates Inoculation I l ti of f substrates b t t with ith mushroom h grain i spawn Managing the mushroom house, watering the substrates and harvesting.

Capacity Development - Training

Beginning from the culture to substrate inoculation every trainee

had h d practically i ll worked k d on each h mushroom h growing i stage. Interestingly the flow of the training schedule was arranged in the way to see the results of the previous practical work. Th f Therefore each h of f us experienced i d mycelia li growth th i in a P Petri t i di dish, h spawn running stage, incubation and fruiting. During the training we had a chance to see a small mushroom enterprise and became familiar to three different types of enterprise, mushroom (Shiitake, Agaricus and Oyster) also their different substrates. We came to understand how mushroom cultivation needs proper p p hygienic condition, care and handling. The type of the row materials used for spawn and substrate making for Oyster mushroom are easily available on the market.

Training

Substrate preparation

Micro grants to Start up Small Small-scale scale Enterprises

Two appropriate mushroom growing rooms were constructed in both

youth association sites in January 2008, 2008 before the training is completed completed.

One was a corrugated iron sheet house 4 x 5 m and the other one was a greenhouse 9 x 6 m. A three layers of wooden shelves was built in each room. The raw materials - cotton seed hulls (oil mills waste cotton seed cake) cake), wheat bran and gypsum along with some other utensils were provided

Spawn making is the most important and needs expensive equipment

and a washable concrete house house. An Institution Institution, private enterprises enterprises, etc etc, should manage it. Up to now the mycology lab of AAU, Biology Department was supporting spawn to the youths. Luckily a private spawn enterprise is recently coming coming. Therefore the youths will simply buy spawn.

Mushroom Cultivation Rooms

Actual Performance
Both Youth development associations of compost and flower and

Nib environmental protection have started their first substrate preparation and inoculation on 5th and 10th of February 2008, respectively
Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostereatus ) was selected because it

is easy for beginners

Since then they have been preparing substrates once or twice a

week depending on the availability of spawn

They y use plastic p bags g to store the p prepared p substrates. The g groups p

harvested their first product of oyster mushroom in the 1st week of March
The growing houses have not yet reached full growing capacity

Amount of mushroom produced and income generated

Youth group No. of bags Newly opened bags Harvest (kg) Sold (kg) Income (Birr)

Youth Devpt Assoc. Nib Assoc.

64

54

30

12

550

77

30

NA

684

Actual Performance
The weight of the total harvest of mushroom was not well recorded

due to the d h f fact that h this hi i is the h fi first produce, d the h amount was very small and was not marketed. The produce was therefore sun dried and was not weighted. And off course some of it was consumed by the youth and a small amount was wasted. Contamination was very minimal. Only 2 to 3 bags were found youth g groups. p contaminated in one of the y Rodents ate some of the substrate and are becoming a challenge to the youth development associations. In addition to the p plastic bags, g few clay yp pots were used. The incubation period was found long and production of fruits took longer time. However, the fruits were very large. It is is observed second pick is on average 15 days after the first pick. pick

Actual production of mushroom

Follow-up Follow up visit and discussion

At last lastFruiting Fruiting

Demonstration of Mushroom Cooking

Various Mushroom Dish Preparations

Marketing
Nib associations managed to sell even their first produce of

mushroom. h
Nib youth association is well known by the neighborhood for its

organic i vegetables t bl and d ornamental t l plants l t production. d ti Th There i is a fixed day in a week for selling vegetables and this created a good opportunity for marketing their mushroom.
The second group is recently linked to a market and is delivering

fresh mushroom once every four days.

After a month and half it is expected that they will reach full

capacity. Nib youth association should look for a dependable outlet for bulk marketing of their products.

Income projection Youth Devpt Assoc.

Size of mushroom cultivation room 20 m square q Yield estimation 80 kg / month Price of mush room / kg. 40 Birr Total expected income = 3200 Birr Cost of production (estimated) = 1000 Birr /month Net Profit f = 2200 Birr/ / month If 20 % of the income (440 Birr/mo) is for the

association and the remaining 1760 Birr is for the three beneficiaries, then each of them will get 586 Birr/mo

Income projection - Nib Assoc.

Size of mush room cultivation room 54 m square q Yield estimation 120 kg /month Price of mush room / kg 40 Birr Total expected income = 4800 Birr Cost of production estimated = 1500 Birr Net Profit f = 3300 Birr If 20% of net profit is for the Association (660 Birr/mo)

and the remaining 2640 Birr for the four beneficiaries beneficiaries, then each of them will get 660 Birr/mo

Benefits and Opportunities

Benefits

Since the nutrition value is high they will get a healthy nutritious diet. It will enhance household food security It will generate cash income and Once the mushroom harvest is finished the substrate can be added to a compost pile and be reused as a natural fertilizer

Opportunities pp

The acquired knowledge can be effectively transferred to their back yard to ensure food security and income Fresh and healthy y food for the family y Good image in the society Excellent opportunities for direct selling and consumers are in the position to see how their food is produced The experience p can be scaled up p in other urban areas

Conclusion
The youth, with support from ISD, have now been introduced to

another type of urban agriculture activity

They easily diversified their area of working environment. Mushroom production can be undertaken with a relatively low

capital, technology and inputs which makes it attainable and affordable for small scale enterprises.
The advantage of mushroom cultivation is already demonstrated

with the youth groups and they now want to expand the mushroom cultivation room.
The youth are excited to experience food like mushroom and they

like it.

Acknowledgements
I extend my deep heartfelt appreciation to Dr. Dawit Abate, for his support from inception of the idea up to realization of the project project. Wt Wt. Zenebech also shared this success and I take this opportunity to thank her her.

Thank You!