Mushroom production integrated in rice program

MANILA, Philippines - More than 50 implementers, farmer-partners and other stakeholders from various parts of the country recently  attended the 3rd National Quarterly Assessment and Planning Workshop of the Community-Based Mushroom Production Project (CBMPP) held last Sept. 19 to 24 at the Villa Caceres Hotel in Naga City. 

The CBMPP is one of the major activities being conducted by the Rice Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in support of the Food Staples Sufficiency Program, specifically the Palayamanan project in lowland farms. 

The “Palayamanan” approach integrates rice production with other commodities like peanut, corn, sweet potato and mungbean, including livestock. 

Participants of the workshop presented their respective regional accomplishments, issues and concerns in implementing the project in the field. They also visited on-station and on-farm (community-based) mushroom production operations. 

Dr. Edgar Madrid, regional technical director for research and regulation of DA-regional field office (RFO) 5, emphasized the importance of the said intervention that is designed to assist poorer rice farmers to raise farm households’/communities’ income from other farm-based enterprises. 

Farmer-partners commended the initiative of the DA Rice Program in promoting CBMPP and the all-out support given by their respective municipal or city government. 

However, they are hoping that the DA could also assist them in the marketing of their produce.

A technical staff from the agribusiness and marketing assistance division in RFO 5, Pat Collao expounded on the possible prospect and marketing strategy for mushroom. 

Eliezer Riñen of the DA National Rice Program said that “by using available materials in the field like the rice straw as substrate, the CBMPP offers an opportunity to create a dynamic and sustainable livelihood venture in a community.”

Arlene de Asis, in-charge of product development unit in the same region, shared various mushroom product and by-products for the appreciation not only by the farmer-partners but the implementers, as well. 

An open forum was also conducted at the end of the workshop where the implementers threshed out bottlenecks in the implementation of CBMPP like the slow processing of purchase requests that contributed to the delay in the procurement of needed materials.

“We must give  our best efforts for this mushroom production project to expand and be successful,” added Emily Soriano, CBMPP national technical and enterprise development coordinator. 

Currently, there are already 66 groups of farmer-partners for the community-based mushroom production project nationwide. 

As an income-generating scheme, some of the said established sites are being managed not only by farmers but also by religious groups, schools, women’s organizations, military personnel, and Department of Social Welfare and Development staff.    

A technical working group was also created to facilitate the crafting of the CBMPP program document which would serve as a medium to guide implementers and to disseminate information about the said project. 

Interested groups to become farmer-partners can request for mushroom production training from the different DA-RFOs.