Affordable Mushroom Production System Design and Operations

Rice farming is the main income source for many farmers in Cambodia. However, rice farming is only possible during the wet season from May to October, reducing the income of many farmers during the dry season. From November to April, families practice subsistence farming, growing vegetables and raising livestock on their small plots of land. Men are often forced to seasonally migrate to urban areas to find work. Affordable mushroom houses are an agricultural technology innovation that offer Cambodian farming families an alternative agricultural source of income. The greenhouse-like structures are wooden and covered with fabric and plastic to create a controllable environment that facilitates mushroom growth. Over the last three years, in collaboration with partners, we have built over 120 mushroom houses in central rural Cambodia with farmers collectively producing over 4,000 kgs of straw mushrooms on a weekly basis. However, due to various factors such as the specific design, materials used, and growing methods, mushroom yields vary widely. Poor construction can lead to poor temperature control inside the structure, which greatly affects mushroom growth. There are also concerns with the structure's relatively short lifespan and its susceptibility to termite infection. In order to understand what was working well and what could be improved upon, data was collected from the mushroom houses including dimensions, materials used, production data, ingredient masses, material and ingredient prices, and cultivation process timing/methods. This paper outlines the success and failure modes of the current mushroom house designs and recommends standardized construction and growth processes to accelerate the adoption of this simple yet transformative technology.