A don in the Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Sciences of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Professor Sami Ayodele, has called on the Federal Government to tap into the benefits of mushrooms as an alternative means of income generation for the country.
Professor Ayodele was delivering the NOUN 22nd inaugural lecture in Abuja recently when he made the call.
The theme of the lecture was “Mushrooms: Friends or Foes”.
According to Professor Ayodele, the country could generate N1 trillion annually from mushrooms if the sector was well managed.
The Professor of Botany stressed that the mushroom sub-sector and its value chain could give jobs to 30 million army of skilled graduates, semi-skilled and unskilled vulnerable youths and women, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
The don therefore urged the government to motivate farmers to embrace the cultivation of mushrooms, as well as sensitise citizens to the benefits of mushroom cultivation, which he noted, would create wealth and alleviate poverty.
Highlighting potential annual revenue from mushrooms, Ayodele said: “Mushroom cultivation could have great economic and social impacts by generating income and employment for both women and youths, particularly in rural areas of developing countries.
“For instance, in China it was estimated that the export value of mushrooms was about $1.6 billion and the total employment in the mushroom industry was over 30 million people.
“Out of this population, only 10 per cent are actual mushroom farmers, others fall within sectors such as food, beverage manufacturing, trading and management, transport marketing, retailing, export and so on.
“The global demand for mushrooms has continued to increase significantly according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) report, while the market for mushrooms is huge and growing exponentially.
“The world mushroom market as at the end of 2020 stood at $45.3 billion, with China producing the highest.
“In Africa, only South Africa Madagascar, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Algeria and Moscow grow mushrooms on a large scale, while Nigeria the giant of Africa does not feature in Africa mushrooms production scale, not to talk about world production scale,” Ayodele said.
The don called on the government to set up a national mushroom germplasm centre for documentation and housing of all available edible and medicinal mushrooms in different parts of the country.
“Soft loans should be granted to interested individuals, particularly unemployed youths and graduates with training in mushroom science to establish small-scale mushroom to reduce unemployment.
“There should be regular seminars , symposia, conferences and workshops by the mushroom scientists to sensitise the Nigeria public to the new trend in mushroom cultivation and its potential for food security.
“The pharmaceutical industries in Nigeria should exploit the medicinal potential of the bio-diversity of medicinal mushrooms in Nigeria for medicinal formulations,” Ayodele said.
The Vice Chancellor of NOUN, Professor Olufemi Peters, praised the inaugural lecturer for his vision and the lecture, and charged Professor Ayodele to form a research team for mushroom, assuring him of the university’s support.
The vice chancellor of NOUN also solicited for the support of the incoming government for feasibility of the research, so that it would not end up as an academic effort.