Biotransformation of agro-industrial waste to wealth in Africa through mushroom farming

Discarding Waste in open drainages, water bodies and unauthorized dumpsites is a common practice in Africa that is deleterious to the global ecosystem. Global warming, flooding and land encroachment are direct impact of these actions. Therefore, a proposed eco-friendly solution to efficient waste management in Africa is “Mushroom Farming”. The region between Latitude 6.43–7.95°N and Longitude 2.88–5.24°E (Nigeria) was the research focus. Mushroom samples were collected, identified, coded and geo-tagged in the field, while Laboratory analyses and mushroom cultivation was conducted in NIHORT and University of Ibadan. The result showed that postharvest waste (rice straw) was best for spawning (Ek1-8→23days, LA1-8→21days, OG1-8→20days, and OY1-8→22days), while agro-waste from Gliricidium sepium facilitated early pin head emergence (26days) and fruiting (28days). Also, agro-waste from Cedrela odorata facilitated early maturation (3days after fruiting), and those from Mangifera indica, G. sepium and C. odorata , improved yield (9.05g), pileus size (4.24g) and dry matter (3.01g), respectively. The Laboratory analyses showed that LA1-8 had the best N 2 , Na and Ca contents (13.59, 70.49 and 61.90mg/100g, respectively), while fat, fibre and carbohydrate contents were highest in samples from EK1-8 (6.60%), OS1-8 (25.13%) and OG1-8 (54.23%), respectively. Mushroom farming is the key to efficient transformation of waste to wealth in Africa.