Edible mushrooms are one of the most consumed agricultural products among Indonesians because of their high nutritional value at a more affordable price. This opens up business opportunity in culturing edible mushrooms especially oyster mushroom which is easier to culture, has shorter period to reach harvest time and requires less capital and space.

To answer this demand for oyster mushrooms both for family consumption and livelihood, BIOTROP conducted a Training on Edible Mushroom Culture on 23-24 May 2016 at its headquarter in Bogor.

Thirty four teachers and students of Wikrama Vocational School in Bogor as well as some representatives from the communities surrounding the school attended the training.

The training was aimed at (1) developing the capability of participants to culture oyster mushroom, (2) improving the nutritional status of the community, and (3) increasing the income of community where the participants come from.

The training consisted of lecture-discussions and hands-on exercises on Overview of various edible mushrooms, Introduction of nutritional value of edible mushrooms, Steps in making mushroom seeds, Steps in making baglog (culture media for mushroom), Sterilization of culture media, Inoculation of mushroom seeds, Incubation of mushroom baglog already inoculated with mushroom seeds, Baglog maintenance, and Mushroom harvesting.

Contributor: Samsul A. Yani