The Nation Newspaper

Tag: mushrooms

  • ‘Mushrooms can tackle food insecurity’

    It is about time we embraced the mushroom. It can get us out of the woods.

    That about sums up Omor-efosa Osemwegie’s economic prognosis as the country grapples with recession.

    A professor of Mycology/Plant Pathology, Osemwegie has urged the Nigerian government to embrace the production of mushrooms as a biotechnology tool in tackling food security challenges in the country.

    Prof Osemwegie added that the production of mushrooms is a huge global business estimated to have been increasing from 2.18 million tonnes in 1988 to 3.5 million tonnes in 2013.

    He said this in Omu-Aran, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State at the second inaugural lecture of Landmark University.

    The lecture was entitled “Mushrooms renaissance: Biodiversity, ethnomycological and ago-perceptions.”

    The lecturer who doubles as the Head, Department of Biological Sciences at the university said that mushroom is a major revenue earner for many developed countries.

    He added that over seven billion dollars in revenue is being shared among many of these nations.

    “While this statistics correlate with that of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), China alone according to the United States International Trade Commission controls about 87 percent of global mushroom production,” Prof Osemwegie said.

    He asked, “Where is Nigeria or even any African nation on the world list of the top 20 mushroom producers?”

    He said, “Cultivation of mushrooms unlike plant production requires less space, little or no worries with soil state, disease threat, mechanization, farm inputs and meteorological data but rather permits flexible manipulation of the environmental conditions for the healthy

    growth of mushrooms.

    “This relies on the use of diverse locally generated waste bases. Similarly, edible and medicinal mushrooms vary across cultures. Nevertheless, literature is replete with suggestions that include

    mushrooms chemical architecture conforming with the nature of ambient environmental chemical characteristics; physiological variations among races and cultures and traditional beliefs from wild mushrooms hunting knowledge heritage or folklore that engenders fear certain types of mushrooms.”

    He said mushrooms grow fast with short cultivation time and attractive turnovers; it requires only small starting capital and low cost implements, rents and basic raw materials.

    He added that mushrooms production “involves a process that is mainly organic from farm-to-fork and minimises the application of synthetic chemical inputs or expensive antibiotics; it may be practiced in home/home-yard or small land space as a small-scale business; mushrooms are globally priced health and energy foods with scientific implications in disease mitigation, longevity and reproductive health and they use organic wastes of industrial, agricultural and domestic origins as substrates (raw materials) and double as a partial process of waste management.”

    He said that “while a small scale mushroom business is tied to season here and some West African nations, it is available all year round in many developed countries of the world for cuisines and industrial processing to pharmaceutical products.”

  • Shopping malls spring up like mushrooms

    Shopping malls spring up like mushrooms

     Over the last decade, shopping malls have evolved in the country, springing up across the states. TONIA ‘DIYAN reports that the ubiquity of shopping malls has redefined shopping experience, created wealth, convenience and has given customers more freedom to choose.

    There have been many developments in the retail sector since the advent of shopping malls 10 years ago when The Palms Shopping Mall, Lekki, Lagos opened shop. Before then, retail outlets were mainly urban-based – in major cities of the country. Today, the game has changed with many malls opening shop in second tier cities, such as Enugu, Kano, Warri, Owerri, Onitsha, Ilorin and Ibadan.

    The retail business space continues to transform with the development of formal, western-style malls that also serve as popular hangouts and meeting points for busy chief executives, especially at weekends and during holidays. And the emergence of world-class shopping places has changed the way people shop, causing a tremendous boom in the industry  and establishing Nigeria as a haven for retail shopping. Nigerians have, today, become better shoppers, especially in the area of buying at wholesale prices, not minding the quantity of items purchased.

    In addition to the popularity of the malls, the developers say they are finding fulfillment more in Nigeria than any other country in Africa, where they have their businesses. According to them, more malls will spring up and they will be the trend for a long time.

    After the two premier malls in Lagos, the retail trading scene has seen many more. While some have been delivered, many are at various stages of completion. Some of them stand out for reasons of size, strategic location, convenience and available infrastructure, among others.

    Apapa mall, Lagos

    The mall berthed in the Apapa area of Lagos has changed the face of retail in Nigeria’s premier port city.

    Before residents and workers in Apapa which is home to an estimated 522,384 people, according to data from the state government website, didn’t have a world-class retail outlet to serve their shopping and relaxing needs.

    This has, however, changed because shoppers experiences in Apapa and its environs have been enhanced.

    The Palms Mall, Lekki

    Towards the end of 2005, The Palms was opened, making history as the first of its kind in Nigeria. It is anchored by a South African supermarket chain, Shoprite, and diverse range of Nigerian retailers as well as international brands, such as Adidas and KFC, South African restaurant Spur, banks, pharmacies and mobile phone companies, such as MTN and Etisalat. Yudala, an offline retail store, has also opened shop there.

    Construction was commissioned by the Oba of Lagos and former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The mall has 69 stores and a six screen cinema. There is parking space for about a 1000 cars.

    Grand Towers, Abuja

    After Lagos, Abuja was next; being one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. At that time, there were not really any shopping centres in Abuja. It was a big drive for Shoprite to open there. Grand Towers owns the land on which the shopping centre stands.

    Port Harcourt Mall

    Port Harcourt Mall (also known as Artee Mall) is in accordance with Spar’s strategy for Nigeria. Spar stores in Nigeria as with its other stores in Sub-Saharan Africa position themselves as a higher quality alternative to the dominance of Shoprite.

    Port Harcourt Mall features 16,000 sqm of lettable space and hosts cinemas (Film houses) and eateries.

    Kwara Mall, Ilorin

    Kwara Mall in Illorin, Kwara State capital, began trading in the last quarter of 2012. It is a 12,000 square-metre shopping mall. It is remodeled after American strip malls and is a joint venture between Persians Group and the Kwara State government, which gave the land as equity contribution to the project.

    Shoprite is also the mall’s anchor tenant, among other brands like Max, KFC, Wrangler, Da Viva, and a host of others. Great customer experiences are offered by the banks, restaurants, beauty salons, meeting places and more.

    Adeniran Ogunsanya Mall, Surulere

    The mall is sitting on a 22,000 sq. metres of land with 154 shop spaces measuring 70-80 sq. metres each, making it one of the largest shopping malls in Lagos. The re-modeled mall delivers world-standard shopping experience to residents of Surulere and its environs. This is evident in its tenant-base, which includes top brands such as Shoprite, Snowy Drycleaners, Stanbic IBTC Bank, KFC, Nando’s, La Pizza, Sharp Electronics, Sony, Swatch, Nike, and others.

    The mall is an offshoot of a pre-existing shopping centre that was “conceived, built and inaugurated in 1975 as the icing on the cake for Surulere residents”.

  • Making a living from mushrooms

    Making a living from mushrooms

    There is a growing demand  for mushroom, and this  has created  a vista of opportunities  for  those  looking  for  where to  invest, DANIEL ESSIET  writes.

    Mrs Mojirade Oluwadiya, a retired teacher is a successful mushroom farmer. But she didn’t start  as a mushroom farmer. She was a poultry farmer.

    After returning from Australia with her husband, she decided she was not going to teach again. She started growing mushroom as a hobby. Along  the line,  she  decided it would  be  worth the while  if she  visited   the United States and Israel to  study  how profitable mushroom  farming could be.

    To her surprise,   she  found  out  that  mushroom farming is  being done  technologically. Farmers  planted  mushroom  under  air-conditioned  environment. The infrastructure was there. The demand was  high. The mushrooms have an excellent shelf life and   required a month or more under refrigeration in paper bags, or cartons.

    While  it  was profitable  to  do  it  that  way using  expensive  technology, she  knew instantly that Nigerians would not be able to afford it. Her search shifted to a third world country where the business can be done cheaply with affordable technologies.

    Fortunately, she  was told  mushroom was a big  business  in Thailand, so she went  on  a fact finding  mission.

    There, she discovered that it was a simple business for small entrepreneurs to go into.

    The cultivation model was simple and easy for small scale entrepreneurs. She also found out that with N10,000,  one  could  start the business.

    It was an approach many Nigerians could adopt and afford. There she found people growing   mushroom using recycled materials and agric wastes. Satisfied with her discovery, she returned home and started using the Thai method, using agricultural waste and environmentally friendly recycled plastic bags for containers.

    Mrs Oluwadiya  learnt how  to    produce  mushroom  using drums, sprayer, tarpaulin, polythene sheets, polybags, and polypropylene bags, among  others. The results have been outstanding.

    Since then, she has been making huge profit by selling the products to leading supermarkets.  She has since become the proud owner of a big mushroom farm with eight workers.

    She is involved in the mushroom-cultivation business all year round and from the income, she is doing a lot of things. She is also starting other small businesses. She has motivated other farmers to start growing mushrooms.

    Her message is that between 10,000 to N50, 000 is required for aspiring investors  to  start  the business. Then it  takes   five weeks to harvest  and that the  farmer begins  to  make money.

    For her, Nigeria  is  a  good  place  for  mushroom  business  as  the  climate is perfect for its cultivation and it  can be grown all year round, creating employment, healthly livinig and wealth for the farmers.

    The challenge however is that  while it is   doing well in many parts of country, people are shying   away from the crop because they lack the materials and information they need.

    Therefore, she is ready  to offer Nigerians the best income-producing opportunity possible.

    To her advantage, she  has  equipment  to  teach  people.

    She has  been  able  to  acquire  the major  infrastructure, build  a lab and other  equipment that one  needs  to produce spores, inoculations and everything to do with mushroom production.

    Apart from this, she has   developed an integrated agricultural business with edible mushroom cultivation, deep processing, sale, demonstration and training.

    She sees  the  market expanding as  companies  can  use the mushrooms to make beverages, soya and powder. She  points to the value addition of diversifying by marketing mushrooms dried or pickled or as part of a food menu, especially for oyster mushrooms.

    For her, investors don’t   have to worry about the market for their produce, they just concentrate on production. There are distributors, who buy their mushrooms as wholesale and retail to individual consumers. For small scale farmers, she said the daily production from a 4×4 metre mushroom room can provide daily income for the five weeks  of its harvesting span.

    The secret to a better market for mushrooms lies in quality. The trick is in the product quality.

  • Need protein? Try mushrooms

    Need protein? Try mushrooms

    Mushrooms can ensure good health and general wellbeing, the Director-General, Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO), Lagos, Dr Gloria Elemo, has said.

    According to her, mushrooms can boost people’s immune system and support the nutritional and dietary needs of mother and child, the vulnerable group.

    Mrs Elemo spoke during a visit by the Gains from the Losses of Root and Tuber Crops (GRATITUDE) project partners from Agricultural and Research Institute, Thailand and Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam.

    She said the idea was to make mushroom popular as a major source of protein.

    She said: “It helps in weight management because substituting red meat with mushrooms can help enhance weight loss. Studies have shown that its consumption was associated with better diet quality and improved nutrition. Consuming dried mushroom extract was found to be as effective as taking supplemental vitamin D2 or D3 for increasing vitamin D levels (25-hydroxyvitamin D).

    “It has hypoglycemic and possible anti-depressant effects, protects your liver and kidneys, increases blood flow, helps normalise your cholesterol levels, and has been used to treat Hepatitis B. It also has potent anti-inflammatory characteristics that may be helpful for those suffering from asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, renal failure and stroke.”

    The institute, she said, was asked by the European Union (EU) to do research and development on edible mushroom cultivation technology and domestication.

    “We are glad to partner with GRATITUDE project, sponsored by the EU,” she added.

    She said: “For the past few months, FIIRO has worked on the use of cassava peel, yam peel and cassava stalk as substitute to produce edible mushroom. The results obtained have particularly been very good. Training is currently being run on mushroom production in the institute. FIIRO has acquired equipment for production of compost material for mushroom cultivation and dehumidifier for environment conditioning, among other things.

    “To reduce investment on mushroom production, a thatched roof mushroom house has been developed to grow mushrooms and train entrepreneurs. This implies that mushroom cultivation can easily be set up in the rural areas at low cost and technology made simple.

    “Recently, a consultant was also engaged to train researchers on the best practices in mushroom cultivation.”

    Mrs Elemo said: “The institute is collaborateing with some universities, polytechnics, research institutes, government agencies, non-governmental organisations and industries with the aim of industrialising the country through research and commercialisation of our research outputs to create jobs.”