Grow mushrooms at Homes

  Written by: Mir Aqa Etibar

A number of people in Afghanistan are facing unemployment, poverty, and hunger and this problem urge some youngsters to migrate to other countries in order to earn money and improve their lives, but those women who have lost their husbands in war and could not migrate, how could they solve their problems?

AEPO’s writer/producer has talked to a widow, Fatima, a resident of Guldara district, Kabul province who grows mushrooms at home.

Fatima says: “I chose a small room in my house for growing mushrooms. I concreted the floor of the room in order not be dirty soon and white painted the walls of the room. At the beginning, we well-boil wheat straw in a big boiler and then we take them out of the water to be dried and then put them in a sack and mix with mushrooms spores and tight the sack. After ten days the mushrooms could pop up and grow. we are picking up 5-6 times mushrooms harvest a year.

Amina, an employee of the One-Year Plant Project, Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation says: “underground room is better for mushrooms growing. When we want to grow mushrooms at home, we should wash wheat straws and then boil them in a special boiler for 6-7 hours and then dry them. We put some straw in a plastic sack and then spread the spores around the straws and then continue the process until the sack is filled. After that, we should tighten the sack to prevent entering air inside the sack and keep the sacks 20-30 cm away from each other and after two days, we should make holes with a needle in the sack in order to remove the accumulated water.

The mushrooms do not need any light but we should keep them warm in the winter.”