Mushroom Mycelium Regeneration in Tropical Environments

Abstract

Mushrooms thrive in tropical environments. Unlike crops, they do not require arable land, special light, or large amounts of water. Mushrooms grow quickly, the typical life cycle being 3-4 weeks. Mushrooms can be grown year-round and be produced off the waste (e.g. rice husk) of other agricultural products. Commercial production of mushrooms bolsters food security and creates new opportunities for farmers as it is not only lucrative and sustainable, but mushrooms contain important micronutrients and they can be easily integrated into people's diets. A fundamental challenge to commercial mushroom production in low-resource settings is acquiring the fungus mycelium and keeping it alive to use for continuous production. It is difficult to keep mycelium alive without lab-like conditions for sterility and electricity for refrigeration. This paper illustrates a novel way to produce mycelium consistently and inexpensively without the use of advanced technology or electricity. This method of propagating spawn by producing second generation grain spawn has been validated in both lab and production environments in the US as well as production environments in Sierra Leone. The ability to grow second-generation spawn is an important breakthrough as it enables commercial mushroom production and circular agricultural economies in low-resource settings.