Igniting a collective African interest in the mushroom value chain

Mushroom for Africa International (MUSH-FA) has been established to coordinate the activities in the mushroom value chain in Africa. MUSH-FA will work with regional farmer organisations and national mushroom associations to provide necessary upliftment and support for the mushroom industry. 

According to the 2022 Global Nutrition Report, malnutrition rates remain high throughout Africa, with low birth weight affecting nearly 14% of infants and nearly 31% of children aged 0–5 years suffering from stunting. In addition, anaemia sets in affecting more than 40% of women of reproductive age throughout Africa.

To combat nutrition, there have been numerous efforts that have been introduced and adopted by different organisations including the AU. One of the recent ones has been the adoption of the Abidjan Declaration, where participating African Union Member States have committed to building nutritional resilience and food security by strengthening Agri-food, health and social protection systems to accelerate human, social and economic capital   development. The Abidjan Declaration also includes commitments to many other efforts to boost nutrition in Africa including sustainable Agri-food systems, funding for Home Grown School Feeding programmes, the creation of an African Nutrition Coordination Agency to monitor commitments and trace funding, the strengthening of mutual learning and experience sharing among African Union Member States.

As stated in the declaration itself, the global nutrition community has pledged to increase investment in Africa to boost nutrition. 

In the quest of realising the dream of the global nutrition community, the role of Mushrooms For Africa in the nutrition nexus is huge. Imagining African communities forming cooperatives in the growing of mushrooms, a revolution is likely to set in! Though there has been an attempt to revolutionise the mushroom industry in the past by involving communities in traditional ways of cultivating them, new technologies have been introduced in the industry and will likely work better now than the tried and tested methods that previously involved communities but with disappointing results!