Fungi-culture could help fight food insecurity in Burkina Faso

**The deteriorating security situation in Burkina Faso is causing massive population displacement. **These displacements exacerbate the disrupting effects of climate change and the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic on the national agricultural production of an agricultural dependent economy.

This situation is contributing to increase poverty, weighting more heavily on internally displaced persons (IDPs) who see their crops and sources of income declining.

The project carried out by the National Agricultural Training School (ENAFA) of Matourkou aims to reduce farmers’ dependence on land and climate in order to improve the living conditions of the people.

Mushrooms are known for their nutritional qualities, easy to implement and cheap production conditions. For this reason, the development of soil-less cultivation is a response to address poverty and exponential inequality in Burkina Faso. The soil-less production method tested consists in using local materials and substrates instead of soil, as well as wastewater.

Through FID’s support, the experimental study conducted by ENAFA in Matourkou aims to verify the economic benefits of soil-less mushroom production in four localities in the east of the country.

The different experiences of fungi-culture development in West Africa have shown the possibility of generating alternative income to traditional agriculture for the populations, independently of climate constraints and external farm inputs.

• Collection of reliable data to understand the potential of fungi-culture in Burkina Faso
• Analysis of the results in terms of economic benefits
• Preparation of a possible scaling-up phase
• Generate sustainable resources for IDPs
• Reduction of poverty and inequalities between communities
• Increased resilience of targeted populations to shocks