In Cambodia, 80% of the population lives in rural areas, where the primary occupation is rice farming. Rice farming only occurs from May to November, leaving farmers without a steady source of income for the remaining five months of the year.
To ensure a year-round cash flow for rural farming families, WHI works with farmers to create mushroom gardens out of waste from last season’s rice and mung bean harvests. Several crops of mushrooms can be grown in a single year and sold at local markets, with an average return on investment of three and a half months.
To bolster success of mushroom farmers, in 2016 WHI partnered with Lehigh University to create Thera Metrey. Meaning “Compassionate Earth” Thera Metrey is a local cooperative enterprise for collective sorting, processing and delivery of mushrooms and other cash crops produced by farmer households. Through Thera Metrey, WHI is able to connect farmers to markets at competitive prices, ensuring production leads to income.
Additional partnerships under WHI’s Mushroom Cultivation Program include Preak Leap National School of Agriculture, researching alternatives to rice straw as a growing medium for mushrooms, and Bambusa – creators of a mushroom house “kit” that takes building time from two weeks to just a few days.
The Impact
Mushroom farming has had a large impact on the lives of rural Cambodians, adding over $2,000 to farmer incomes annually and enabling them to stop traveling to urban areas for work, save for larger purchases, and pay off existing loans.
Some mushroom growers have built water wells to increase their production and to expand into other cash crops like mung beans, which enhance soil in addition to serving as a food source, as well as higher value cultivars such as black and yellow ginger, rosella, cacao and avocado. Others have gone on to build even more mushroom houses and buy agricultural waste from neighboring farms to supply their mushroom operations.
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