John Muchura at his mushroom farm in Juja, Kiambu County. photo | courtesy
A meagre salary of Sh500 a day made John Muchura, 37, quit his
job in 2012 at an electrical company and pursue mushroom farming, a
venture that now earns him a tidy sum daily.
Mr Muchura
graduated from the Technical University of Kenya (TUK), then known as
Kenya Polytechnic, with a Diploma in Electronic Engineering in 2005. He
later got a job with an electrical installation company in Nairobi. His
work involved wiring and installing electrical appliances for the
company’s clients in various places.
“My work in the
company involved travelling almost on a daily basis on assignments to
meet our clients in need of electronic services and I used my own money
on transport and lunch leaving me with almost no savings at the end of
the day,” says Mr Muchura.
After one year, Mr Muchura
who also pursued microbiology at TUK but later dropped it, left the
company and got a teaching job in a private high school in Ruiru in
2007.
From this job, he was able to save some money that would enable
him to start mushroom farming as a side hustle in Juja, Kiambu County.
“I used Sh2,000 to buy a drum, poles, grass and wheat straws among
other materials I knew were basic in growing the crop. Then I used
Sh1,000 to buy one kilogramme of oyster mushroom seeds,” notes Mr
Muchura.
He chose to plant oyster mushroom, which
according to him is easy to multiply compared to button mushrooms which
mutate making it difficult to produce consistent yields.
“Although
oyster mushrooms do not do well in the market as compared to button
mushrooms, which are easy to market and sell, I could make my own seeds
with oyster mushrooms as opposed to button mushrooms that keep changing
their productivity rate,” he says.
From one of his
15x20 metres grass-thatched mud house, he used to harvest 20 punnets
which is equivalent to five kilos of oyster mushrooms a day.
He
sold one punnet at Sh100 translating to about Sh2,000 a day. This
motivated him. In 2013, he quit teaching to fully focus on mushroom
farming. He abandoned oyster mushroom for button mushroom and has since
increased his production houses from one to five.
Currently, he is harvesting over 20 kilos of button mushrooms per day which he sells at Sh600 per kilo earning him Sh12,000.
In
addition, Mr Muchura trains over 30 farmers from various areas on
button mushroom farming. These farmers also produce between 20 and 50
kilos of mushroom daily which he either buys from them or connects them
with other buyers.
“The training started when a farmer
visited me and saw what I was doing and able to achieve. After training
him and he became successful, he went spreading the word to other
farmers and that is how I got connected to the over 30 farmers,” he
says.
Although
the farmers source for their own markets, they also rely on Mr Muchura
to connect them with better and reliable buyers something he does for
free to motivate them to bring in more growers into mushroom farming.
He
plans to start a farmers’ network in a bid to meet market demand. “I
source from the farmers about 50 kilos, add my 20 kilos making it 70
kilos or more depending on the market demand,” he says.
The
mushroom industry has a well-established private sector investment with
large scale commercial farms like Agridutt Limited, Rift Valley
Mushrooms, Online Mushrooms, Devani and Kanchan Mushrooms. However, key
exporting companies do not have outgrowers.
In Kenya,
there is a high demand for mushrooms. The country produces 500 tonnes a
year – of which 476 tonnes are button mushroom – against an annual
demand of 1200 tonnes, according to the National Farmers Information
Service (NAFIS). A kilo of mushroom is priced at between Sh400 and
Sh600.
“I am targeting more farmers who can work as a
team so that we can win supply contracts with supermarkets and
exporters. At least this will assure us of a more stable and consistent
market for our produce,” he adds
On a good day, he can collect up to 100 kilos of the mushrooms which can earn over Sh60,000 a day.
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