To promote community empowerment as part of efforts aimed at increasing community income and improving livelihoods, the Papua Provincial Forestry and Environment Service, working in conjunction with FORCLIME, held a training session on mushroom farming for forest farmer groups from 4 - 8 December 2023 in Sabron Village, Jayapura Regency, Papua. The training session was opened by the Head of the Papua Province Forestry and Environment Service and was attended by 19 participants, nine of whom were female.

During the training session, participants were taught how to cultivate mushrooms through the use of simple technologies and without pesticides in order to ensure that such cultivation is environmentally friendly. Session participants also learned how to produce planting media from sago waste and wood sawdust, both of which are abundant in the village. In addition, the participants also learned how to implement processes of inoculation and incubation.

“Through this training session, we have now learned how to prepare planting media, including the processes that are involved in the placement of planting media into polybags, the inoculation process and the incubation process. However, we will require help procuring equipment and seeds, which remain an obstacle for the community in terms of the cultivation of mushrooms," explained Mrs. Rahel Yewi, one of the training participants.

Now that the training has concluded, each village will form mushroom farming groups. Additionally, further training sessions on the processing of mushrooms after harvesting will be held in order to increase the values of the villagers’ products with an eye on increasing local incomes.

For more information, please contact:
Hana Soakakone, intern from Cenderawasih University
Rut M Ohoiwutun, Junior Adviser for Community Forestry and Hutan Adat, Papua
Mohammad Sidiq, Strategic Area Manager for Sustainable Forest Management and Coordinator for Tanah Papua