Initao, Misamis Oriental---In response to the growing popularity and viability of mushroom among consumers and in the market today, a three-day training on mushroom transpired lately at the Buhian Diversified Farm in Initao, Misamis Oriental.

The said training was participated in by 34 farmers who were member of the Initao United Farmers Association (INUFA). The training was conducted in response to the training request of Mr. Pablito Ratunil, President of the said association to capacitate the farmers on basic techniques on mushroom production. Also, there were seven participative walk in participants who were accommodated as per Facebook page inquiry during the duration of training.

The farmer participants of this training learned on the basic cultural management for straw mushroom production and its maintenance. Incorporated topics include “LIKASA (Likas na Pagsasaka)” and “Farming as a Business” to encourage the participants to venture into agribusiness. They were able to perform hands-on demonstration and return demo on Spawn Making and Mushroom Bed preparation. One of the Resource Persons (RP) was Mr. Pedro B. Mariquit, a Learning Site (LS) operator and owner of the Mariquit Mushroom Farm and expert of Volvariella volvaceae or also known as Straw Mushroom.

Outputs of the training were spawn of straw mushroom and mushroom bed. The farmer participants were then given spawn as post-training support that they can use as a starter kit to jumpstart their mushroom production venture. The Training on Mushroom Production was held on September 18-20, 2019. Training Specialist-II Moisa Niña D. Catiil served as the Project Officer (PO) of the training. (with reports from Moisa Niña D. Catiil, Training Specialist-II)