Magic Mushrooms

For the Central African country of Rwanda, coffee is one of the most important export products. Coffee beans account for 25% of the country’s agricultural exports and over 400,000 Rwandan farmers depend on this crop to survive. However, coffee can only be harvested once a year, which means that these farmers only have an income once a year and have to survive on it for the rest of the year. As a result, coffee farmers generally remain very poor.

The aim of this project is to use one of the waste streams from coffee bean production to create a new, continuous source of income for these farmers. Pulp made from the skin of the beans is a very good substrate for growing oyster mushrooms. Growing oyster mushrooms requires little land and no large initial investment from the farmers, which is why the Rwandan organisation Entraide et Developpement has started a project around this cultivation that can generate a sustainable additional source of income for the farmers. This summer, we will conduct experiments together with local farmers and technicians to standardise and optimise the process of substrate preparation and cultivation.