Award details

Optimizing mushroom spawn production in Uganda

Reference	BBS/E/F/00042720
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Pradeep Malakar
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Michael William Peck, Professor Keith Waldron
Institution	Quadram Institute Bioscience
Department	Quadram Institute Bioscience Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	53,113
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/03/2014
End date	29/02/2016
Duration	23 months

Abstract

This project aims to deliver technological and socio-technical innovation in Uganda to establish mushroom farming as a cottage industry where supply of mushroom spawns is guaranteed. The 1st aim of the project is to establish a national mushroom germplasm bank at the Ugandan National Agriculture Research Laboratory (NARL) and a mushroom spawn production facility for providing access to good quality mushroom spawn. Mushroom production of can be achieved without capital-intensive investment and plays an environmental protection role through the recycling and upgrading of a wide variety of organic wastes. However, a major impediment for mushroom growers in lower income countries is access to good quality spawn. The 2nd aim of the project is Clostridium botulinum hazard assessment and valorization of waste streams from mushroom production. No systematic survey of prevalence of C. botulinum in soil samples is available in Central Africa. Prevalence of C. botulinum in feedstock used for growing mushrooms in Uganda is timely for quantifying risk of this pathogen, since 30 ng of neurotoxin is sufficient to cause illness and in some cases death. Spent mushroom substrate (SMS), a lignocellulose waste product from mushroom cultivation can be transformed into alternative added value materials. SMS can be incorporated directly into soil as a structuring agent, has the potential to be pretreated, enzymatically digested, to produce monosaccharides, which can then be fermented to produce a range of products including fuel ethanol. Equally, mycelial component in SMS will contain a range of potentially bioactive polysaccharides e.g. ß-glucans, mannans and proteoglycans, for use as health-conferring compounds. The 3rd aim of the project is to engage with stakeholders (farmer groups, private/cooperative spawn- and mushroom-producing enterprises, government agencies, research/training institutions) for expanding and diversifying spawn production and mushroom cultivation in Uganda.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, Microbiology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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