Urban mushroom farming

Mushrooms provide a wide range of nutritional benefits and are environmentally friendly crops. However, mushroom production remains largely untapped. This innovation proposes to diversify and increase the production of mushrooms. Mushrooms grow rapidly and yield high returns. Growing houses can be very simply made at low cost, using low tech methods, on small plots of land. The substrate to grow mushrooms can be made of waste material. For instance, oyster mushrooms can grow on cottonseed hulls, cocoa hulls, banana leaves, spend grains, coffee waste or straw. Shiitake mushrooms grow well on many different woods and forest waste materials. Once the mushroom harvest is over, the spent mushroom substrate has all the nutrients, protein, and medicinal compounds found in the mushrooms themselves. It can be used as compost for other plant or vegetable crops.