Tisange Mushroom Association - What We Would Like To be Able To Do In The Near Future.

Waste management in general is a big problem in Malawi, a subset of this challenge is the management of plant based agricultural waste produced on both farms and domestic farming plots also known locally as dimbas. The Tisange Mushroom Association devised an innovative way of composting the corn husks, plant stems, and other mainly plant based waste produced into a proprietary substrate infused with mycelium. The infused substrate can then be implanted with mushroom spawn (seeds) that Tisange sells to the farmers. The typical oyster mushroom seed to harvest cycle of approximately 30 to 40 days means that farmers can potentially have at least 10 harvests in a single calendar year, a reliable steady source of income. Tisange’s initiative growing mushrooms in a co-operative paradigm stops the environmentally harmful practice of burning agricultural waste that harms the soil and pollutes the air. The aforementioned waste is now eliminated via a pathway that produces nutritious cash crop mushrooms and that also facilitates income generation.

• When the rainy season ends in Malawi and the dry season commences, mushrooms become short in supply and hard to find in the wild. Tisange aims to provide delicious mushrooms all year round.

• The Tisange Association found that individuals such as girls and women spent a lot of time on lengthy trips deep into forests gathering mushroom, making them very vulnerable to physical attacks and abuse as well as having less time to study or to do other more productive things. Individuals with albinism are even more vulnerable to these attacks while on these trips too due to superstitions and ignorance that sometimes prevails in rural communities.

• Identifying edible mushrooms in the wild takes years of experience and education. Due to the lack of education, these individuals who are mainly girls and women stand the real risk of gathering poisonous mushrooms.

• Mushroom production requires less land real estate. The predominantly vertical nature of the mushroom substrate containment means that the domestic backyard could be used for growth Therefore, even the elderly or the chronically ill can also participate in growing their own mushrooms for healthier, sustainable living, and income generation.

• The skill of developing the precise nature of the mycelium infused substrate used for growing the oyster mushrooms is the intellectual property and talent of the Tisange Mushroom Association.

Future.