Attempts are afoot to revive widespread mushroom cultivation, downstream production, and commercialization in Lufa district of the Eastern Highlands province.
Minister for Environment, Conservation and Climate Change and MP for Lufa, Simo Kilepa, on Boxing Day, was at his district headquarters for the groundbreaking and unveiling of the new mushroom processing building design.
“As part of our master Five–Year Development Plan, mushroom is one of our hero cash crops apart from coffee,” Mr Kilepa said.
The construction of the new building will begin in the new year.
Once in operation, the building and mushroom re-selling will be managed by the District Development Authority business arm – Debala Investment.
“The name of the business arm was taken from “Deveh” (Yagaria LLG), Bade (Mt. Michael LLG) and “Ala” (Unavi LLG),” Minister Kilepa explains.
The interest in mushroom cultivation began in 1997 when a Chinese research agency started studies in the province and found Lufa to be the perfect spot for the cash crop to flourish.
“Professor Lin Xian Ji, head of the research team at the time, was asked by then Lufa MP – Mathias Karani to do research in Lufa, which he said was the right environment for the crop to be grown in huge quantities,” a longtime local mushroom farmer Kendy Man.
Since then, under a government-to-government agreement, ongoing funding and technical assistance have been provided for mushroom commercialization at the provincial level under the pre-text of Lufa mushroom.
The district, however, despite the existence of 18 cooperatives, has not realized its full potential or entered mass production after continuous government counter-funding of the project.
Lufa MP – Kilepa said, “For a very long time, this project has been parked under provincial functions, and only a few have been benefiting using the name – Lufa Mushroom. It's time we take it back and implement what belongs to the people after 25 years”.
Mushroom cultivation and harvest have a turnaround time of two weeks per batch, with global price trends estimating the crop to be between K10 in 2023 and K20 per kilogram in 2028.
Although the easiest, it remains the most modest and delicate to handle.
The new mushroom processing facility will replace the ghost mushroom facility built in the 90’s at Lufa station