Successful Mushroom Farming in Zimbabwe 101

I’m simply going to list here the key components that mark a successful Mushroom project enterprise in Zimbabwe.

1. Training of the Proprietor.
In any area in which you are new you need prior training before you commit money. Mushroom is no different, it’s an even more pressing need, because of the level of complexity involved. There are quite a few trainers available in Zimbabwe, a simple Google search will yield one or two who are near you.

2. Good spawn.
Even after nearly 11 years using different spawns on different farms I had not grasped how very key this ingredient is in project success, good quality robust and abundant spawn is very essential.

3. On farm Consultancy
Even big companies hire consultants routinely to get the cutting edge thinking in a given area of business. You’re no exception even when you’ve grown Mushroom for 40yrs there’s bound to be stuff you don’t yet know. Get a few knowledgeable and accomplished individuals to pep talk you ever so often

4. Best Available Substrate Selection (BASS)
Most Harare farmers have concluded that cotton hulls is the only reasonable Mushroom substrate on the market, but most haven’t calculated the cost for having it, most still don’t regard how poorly it scores on contamination during certain seasons of the year. Some farmers are far away from oil mills and can’t afford the logistics required to ship these hulls. Their answer is what I refer to as B.A.S.S. Using this score sheet a farmer can workout the best substrate availability profile for his/her project.

5. Proximity to Markets
A product without a market is a
burden, and Mushroom can be a very heavy burden because it perishes fast. As such have your
clientele base well figured and as differentiated to suit your strategy as much as possible.

Typical Mushroom Project value chain

6. Material selection
The margin for most locally produced goods in Zimbabwe is markedly low, this is due to the
high costs of acquisition for most locally made inputs and labour. As such for sustainability a producer strives to keep his production costs low. One key method is to review the whole array of materials used and configure a set up that uses the least cost materials and as well uses minimal labour to get a finished product.

RTAFI

anythingmushroom is aligned to Rockshield Train A Farmer Initiative in Marirangwe and M&N Productions in Ruwa. They provide sufficient depth in any of the topics discussed above. They are sellers of training and consultancy services as well as Sylvan sourced Button and Oyster Spawn. Contact them on the details below

Masimba
Cell/WhatsApp: 0772888752
Email: rockshieldmasimba@gmail.com

Sylvan A15 Button Spawn now available for Zimbabwe at a reasonable price.

Sylvan A15 Agaricus bisporus spawn

In an earlier post I alluded to how spawn availability is stifling the development of the Zimbabwean Mushroom industry. I also pointed at how we are dependend on South Africa for our Agaricus spawn supplies. I must hasten to correct that the South African spawn suppliers are the Sylvan Incorporated’s Africa branch domiciled in that nation. Sylvan are a multinational spawn supplier.

Sylvan Inc are a world leader in Mushroom Spawn production and supply. They have a long history of supplying the major Mushroom Growing Farms the world over with consistent and guaranteed quality of product. The question can therefore not be about them being in South Africa or elsewhere. It’s about us being able to access their product at meaningful rates.

One can go to town about how the government needs to scrap duty off Mushroom Spawn since we are better off importing seed than Mushroom Fruit, and the industry could get investment tax rebates. We have chosen not to be armchair scientists about this. The newest baby on the scene is called MMA Spawn. MMA seeks to be a household name in Button Spawn supply. They have presently started shipping in and selling Sylvan Spawn at meaningful rates. Mainly available is the Button Mushroom A15 variety. In the near future we are hoping to be able to ship other types of Spawn being successfully grown across the world to give our farmers variety that is both profitable and yielding.

For more information about MMA Spawn and indeed other ways to acquire Spawn of any type, and Mushroom training, contact Masimba below:-

Cell: 0772888752
Email: rockshieldmasimba@gmail.com

Mushroom Spawn investment, a critical link in the Zimbabwean mushroom industry’s development

Spawn cultures being made in the MM Spawn Lab

Spawn forms a critical link in the mushroom value chain. There are generally two options any mushroom farmer can take, either produce the spawn on your own or find a reputable supplier who makes the right strain for you and can be relied on to have the quantities you need of that strain each time.

Spawn supply has become a limiting factor, not only are suppliers informal and to a great extend not registered (by no means an indicator of poor workmanship these labs are making excellent oyster spawn). My only case against Zimbabwean spawn labs is that they are doing less than the market they are serving is demanding. Of late increase in demand has been met by increase in price. No notable investment in capacity, no known systems for continuous improvement etc. To add to these weaknesses, we continue to depend to a large extend on South Africa for Agaricus spawn.

The picture I detail above, leaves a Zimbabwean mushroom farmer with one plausible scenario, to make spawn on his own. This however is not an easy thing to do. One has to have basic working knowledge on microbiology, added to that basic operations management. In my usual line of thought though, I feel as necessary as this maybe, it fights against lean thinking. A more realistic approach may essentially be centred around consortium thinking. Any grouping of constant mushroom producers that will seek to bring spawn production to reputable levels will have the best of both worlds. They will be lean if they use basic business management principles at the same time self sustaining since they will have brought the resource within a sphere they can influence.

Masimba Mpahlo writes in his personal capacity

Reach him on
Cell: +263772888752
Email: rockshieldmasimba@gmail.com

Mushroom Consultancy and Training Services at economic rates

It is a New Year which for some was forecast to be ominous. For some this has been the case but some are soldiering on. At anythingmushroom we believe in doing something and in that spirit, we are innovating and we continue to grow in our service and product offer.

We have two major goals to accomplish by the end of the year, firstly we are rolling out a full package of consultancy services for Start Up projects in two packages, Beginners and Switch Over/Augmentor the first one is priced at a rate above the second. The Beginners package regards that there’s more complexity in setting up a project from scratch, the second regards that your requirements are much less, as such is less costly. We are also offering troubleshooting and monitoring services for any type of project at equally economic rates.  For details reach us via the contacts below

Our second goal which is at a considerably advanced stage is to augment the spawn supply currently available. We are already selling spawn through various partner labs and we hope to grow this action as it forms the core of our consultancy service.

Training services continue to be on offer and we are adding more meaning to the FlexiTrain mode. Before we were offering flexible booking independent on numbers attending on the given day, this time we are free to come train you at your place at a slightly higher cost than your visiting our farm.

Feel free to contact us:-

Masimba Mpahlo
+263772 888 752(WhatsApp), +263736260410

As the year (2013) closes

We at anythingmushroom would like to convey our sincere gratitude to the multitude of visitors we have received to this site this year.

We have seen our efforts and resultant interaction snowball in the months gone by with the effect that I have been inspired, as the face of this blog. I have met lifelong friends, I have been inspired as much as I have inspired others to do more. I am glad that through the collective effect of this platform, Rockshield Train-A-Farmer-Initiative (RTAFI), which is our training arm has trained in excess of 20 individuals in Oyster Mushroom Fruit Production. A small figure that we expect to surpass in 2014. We have not been advertising in the press and all participants have simply been coming via Google, we appreciate all so much.

Special mention goes to Mrs Senanelo Moyo of Hwange who travelled all the way to the Rockshield farm in Marirangwe to get trained and later procured spawn through our Inputs Logistics arm and has this week started harvesting her oyster mushrooms grown on banana leaves in her community. Her daughter googled us from Germany and forwarded her our contacts so she could book her training. More names come to mind, including some who even after promising to show up, later failed to do so. Some are still constructing and some are challenged elsehow. We love you all.

To all our suppliers, we are much overjoyed to have come this far together.

More is in store for 2014, we have laid some foundation in some key areas of our enterprise and do believe we will celebrate the next 12months as a reputable Mushroom Sciences hub in Zimbabwe.

Keep glued to this blog for some catalytic interventions we will roll out in the near future.

Great mushroom farming to all

Masimba
+263772888752/0736260410

Carving Out Value: The Mushroom Way

The Mushroom Millionaire

From this point on I want to be on record as saying in the next 5-10yrs Zimbabwe might just get its first mushroom millionaire. And I know most will look around and say, Masimba has lost it. For a season I am seeing the right mix of circumstance and brawn to have a number of our own people who are shrewd, bold and hard enough to scheme, erk out fortunes from what the ordinary masses are calling a disaster.

My Nostalgia

Yesterday as we sat through a Field Day presentation in Marlborough hosted by Mushtella Specialty Mushroom’s Nyasha Mupaso, something was sparked in me. It is some 6years ago while I was studying Strategy for my P&S Diploma that something came into my mind that I had an inkling of what I saw Nyasha walking into yesterday. Most importantly I was working at arguably Zimbabwe’s leading R&D Centre, making spawn for mushroom farmers. Back then my bosses were keen that I shape myself better into my remit by studying sciences. I spurned the advice, if for any reason because I felt my mind too dishevelled for science. Back to the issue at hand, I had a vision of a new strategy for a growth trajectory for the Mushroom Project I was working for. They were doing Spawn, and Training and Fruit production with no obvious synergies accruing. My old colleague suggested spurring training demand by relooking the costing model which looked wasteful. It was a plausible suggestion but it seemed a disjointed approach just addressing a segment of the value chain. My own belief from this point was that the whole project had to pull in one direction and enjoy the accruing synergies.

Weak Strategy, Weak Bottom line

We had no business growing mushrooms because that is not R&D for such a huge Centre. We were into knowledge creation and challenging the norms, fruit production would make us stagnant since I figured it was mundane. We were in the process of acquiring competencies in bulk materials handling and inoculums multiplication. We had to have a good order book and competencies in keeping that book free of stocking related discrepencies. But there was a key additive that was missing, using the training competency in creating a market for the spawn. We had all this set for this strategy to unfold, but, my only problem was I was too junior to influence the organizational strategy. Eventually I had to throw in the towel and I resigned. But I have continuously had a vision that a mushroom conglomerate did not really need much to happen in Zimbabwe nomatter the outlook, because the opportunities are immense- it is an infant industry with prime value to be carved.

A New Pair of Eyes

Yesterday the gathering we had had me thinking, Mushtella has struck the right code. The only excuse for a mushroom farmer to train is as a fundraising venture or a CSR stunt, apart from that strategicaly it is a no brainer. Mushtella has embraced the spawn production competency as a strategic business area, so he has strong reasons to train and give knowledge even at no cost to the attendance. On that basis alone he can arguably be the best trainer available because he has more to gain from so doing. But,he still has some strategic fine tuning to do. I claimed up there that Zimbabwe might have its first mushroom millionaire in the next 5-10yrs. What I mean by that is not precisely that Mushtella is gonna be the millionaire, but amongst the faces I have seen this year under the aegis of anythingmushroom, or KurimaAgro or the collaboration we have been having man to man with Nyasha, there is someone there who is about to record the million dollar success. Why? I believe the total contribution we have made to the industry with just open minds and Samsung Galaxy smartphones in our hands is spawning a new way of looking at the mushroom enterprise. Surely if someone is keenly learning something from the noises we regularly make, there is something to be leant and there is a lot of money to be made. Not even in Zimbabwe’s booming years but right now.

Technoprenuerism

Mix Science with business and carve out value. Its not enough understanding how to circumvent the mushroom pitfalls without learning the language of business, which I have seen most people doing. In the depression years businesses do not make as much money out of marketing as they do out of managing their costs and constantly scouting for savings opportunities all through their processes. A dollar saved has an immediate impact on the value chain. Efficiency being one of the keywords that came out the presentation yesterday. Science gives us the technology to create value from various unseeming components but entreprenuership helps us carve out more value from the same than anybody else. The millionaire I am talking about is most likely not gonna be a total mushroom sciences guy but just a shrewd investor who has the mettle to force out a payback from any amount of money they invest.

Masimba Mpahlo writes in personal capacity.
Contact him in the following ways: Cell/WhatsApp/Viber: 0772888752 Email: rockshieldmasimba@gmail.com Join our Facebook Page: Mushroom Growers Zimbabwe

Rockshield Enters into Mushroom Cultivation Materials Logistics for remote farmers

A typical package containing Mushroom Production materials for a farmer in Mat North

I’ll be on record as saying most Mushroom Production and Sales in both button and oyster is concentrated around Harare. The result is that it is onerous for new entrants and veterans in far flung areas such as Matebeleland to engage in Mushroom Cultivation in a meaningful way. As a consequence, these areas get to enjoy mushrooms but at some ridiculous prices.

Rockshield Mushrooms has pioneered Mushroom Cultivation Logistics in support of farmers and stakeholders from the remote areas. Directly piggybacking, on the route networks of established logistics partners, we are promising to handle all the logistical requirements in Harare for farmers in remote parts of Zimbabwe. A typical package will contain spawn, planting, pockets, a thermometer, a scale, packaging materials for a start-up level project and can still contain anything that a typical farmer might want.

Feel free therefore to contact Masimba on the Logistical Support Package of your level and get a quote for it. We have enough partnerships in the whole mushroom supply chain to share with other farmers across Zimbabwe and the SADC region. So do get in touch for more details and a quotation

Masimba Mpahlo writes in his personal capacity. He is an entreprenuer with widespread experience in mushroom project start-up.

Contact him on Cell/WhatsApp: +263772888752 Email: rockshieldmasimba@gmail.com

Summer mushroom cultivation in Zimbabwe.

Winter is officially over as much as we will continue to have disjointed bouts of cold weather. This has consequencies on the mushroom farm. Here are some.

Pests

Expect a higher incidence of flies termites, and rats. The most notorious of these three being mushroom flies. These will proliferate at a higher rate in the warm temperatures ensuing resulting in substantial losses on mushroom farms. For greater detail, consider calling Rockshield Train-A-Farmer for a course. Rats are also notorious. They burrow inside colonized bags and can also damage new crops. Combined with the flies, these pests form a formidable destructive alliance against the farmer. Termites damage will greatly depend on the technology a farmer has deployed for his farm. As well more details are available from our Rockshield Train-A-Farmer Initiative courses.

Diseases

The Green Mould gets more prevalent in the warm weather, causes great losses to all farmers, big or small. As much as rigorous hygiene is touted by most as the most plausible front against this disease, there are other ways we reveal for start ups at Rockshield. Bacterial Blotch is yet another disease which affects a crop at fruiting, whose incidence favours warm weather. The inky cap with it’s characteristically off white to black colonisation traits is yet another disease to look out for.

Managing the Risk

The vegetative stage of your crop will pause the highest risk, as such more focus is required there. If kitswere available on the market, they would ideally attract a higher price this summer due to the challenges they pause during their production. As well their demand would inevitably rise thus increasing their going price.

Supply and Price trends

Fruit supply will be falling in the next 7 months resulting in prices increasing at the supermarket bays. There is a give and take in this scenario in that the rise in prices will cushion the regular farmer against the seasonal losses. I will not detail the causes for the fall in supply I already did that somewhere What I urge all farmers to do is to innovate strategies that make them robust in face of the weather, and there are a host of these strategies.

Happy mushroom farming to all.

Masimba Mpahlo writes in his personal capacity. He has 10 years collective experience in mushroom enterprise in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Reach him on: Cell/WhatsApp: +263772888752 Email: rockshieldmasimba@gmail.com Twitter: @DisVoice Facebook: Mushroom Growers Zimbabwe.

Organizational Aspects in Mushroom Project Design II: The Partnership

In the time that I have been both an entrepreneur and a life coach for a select number of mushroom growers, I have experienced or come across various configurations of the mushroom project. In the first part of this topic I wrote about The Cooperative. Today I will write on the partnership.

A definition

According to Wikipedia, a partnership is an arrangement where parties agree to cooperate
to advance their mutual interests.

Most people I meet either are proposing that we partner in a venture, or better still have already partnered a friend to get a mushroom business started. These are well meant overtures that in my opinion are as poorly thought out as their spontaneity may reveal. It is true that friends may be well connected and have good cultural fit to form a sustainable business but there are a lot more issues to consider. Below I will put up a few pointers that anyone who is keen to form a partnership might want to consider

1. Cultural fit

I have turned down business partnership overtures from a number of people after failing to find cultural fit. The other person is a drinker while I am not, the other person is arrogant, and I am humble, the other person is bossy and I am not. List goes on. As much as you may find other commonality points if you can’t find cultural fit, let it go. Cultural fit has everything to do with how things are going to be done. Unlike a social friendship in which there are not going to be many pressures to bear, in business there are going to be serious roles and constant arguments in shaping up or stepping out, these need personalities that compliment each other culturally.

2. Complimentary attributes

As much as possible, partner with a person who is not too similar in attributes to yourself. There is not much of apoint in partnering with someone who is as broke in ideas and resources as you are. As well don’t partner a person who is as successful in the same area as you are. If you are technical, better find a financial pro. If you are good at marketing, find an operations pro and so on and so forth. Being pros in one area most likely creates an environment for regular conflicts in how to do certain things. If cultural fit is bad, this partnership will not survive these areas for potential conflict.

3. Let your meeting up be spontaneous

The best places to make partnerships are typically absurd. I have seen more partnerships being brokered in internet cafes in the past four years. This has since become less so due to mobile internet. Other places may include social spots eg golf play outs, social and community clubs etc. These social points allow interaction that is random on topics that are broad. It’s much easier to pick out a person’s attributes during a social event, than during a business meeting. . The internet cafe made ease of this, as continual meet ups always made for curiosity on what the other guy was up to.

4. Partner a worker

As such given the right setting, a person should ideally find a partner who exudes confidence and is a worker not a shirker. Some partnerships start off well, with great ideas of how to turn a key opportunity into a lucrative business, but talk is cheap. As a business goes through evolution from inception, ideally all partners should be equally up to task when there are challenges either financially or otherwise. However if you pair yourself with a shirker, you are likely to be left with the donkeywork when the going gets tough.

5. Find a good communicator

Work is unlike a social event as much as it may be a key component of the social existence. Most times there are pressures to do with meeting certain deadlines. In mushroom enterprise everyday has its deadline. These deadlines need teamwork to be met. A poor communicator as a partner will overlook the information to be shared and when to share it, with disastrous consequences.

6. Share roles

Any piece of work needs defined roles to cut out conflict. Either split roles into two major clusters for permanent handling by the parties coming together, or interchange key areas of influence and responsibility. Ideally a person’s key attributes should determine whether he will handle the logistics/operations/marketing/financial roles of the project, and this process should be well communicated and thought out. Try as best possible to cut out group think.

7. Manage your social relations

In most partnerships spouses do not have defined roles, and that whole issue is left shady. If either partner ever is incapacitated to continue what role does his/her spouse assume in the state of affairs? Is it correct to have spouses come in as employees in the business? Ideally the extra relations should not be allowed to have a daily bearing on the partnership however clauses should be included on the articles of association on how spouses and children can assume their representative partner’s role in the case of death or accident. In some partnerships I know, the other partner is always on the lookout for an opportunity to sideline the other party. Lawyers can assist best in clearing the air as much as possible.

8 Draft an articles of association

Lay out in no ambiguous terms what it is you are both assuming, and let all risk management issues be handled directly or in attached schedule format to the articles, laying out the succinct points. Ideally find a lawyer to assist whilst you already have a clear idea between yourselves of what issues need clarity.

Mushroom Cultivation has a high level of complexity. Starting out a typical project without clarity of roles and responsibility makes for suspicion and eventual dissociation. Upon acquiring training, ideally get trained concurrently or rope in a mutually agreeable consultant. Communication on strategic decisions like substrate selection, spawn source, process and employment should be constantly shared. As well in the cases where sales are executed by one party, let all key clients info be shared, and let there be weekly or daily reviews of the sales action.

Lastly be very clear that what you have is a partnership not a sharecropping arrangement. Most cases the financially endowed party always wants to muscle out the technical partner into a corner. Let all contributions be appropriately valued at inception.

Other relevant articles on partnership

1. Wall Street Journal

2. Sitepoint

3. Sample Partnership agreement from smallbusinessnotes.com

Masimba writes in his personal capacity. He can be reached on

Cell/WhatsApp: +263772888752
Skype: mmpahlo
Email: rockshieldmasimba@gmail.com
Twitter: @mbmpahlo
Twitter hashtags: #mushroomstartups2013, #kurimahohwa2013, #mushprenuer
Facebook: Mushroom Growers Zimbabwe

Mushroom Entreprenuership: From Vision to Action, some key points.

In the past three months I have had a unique opportunity to talk to a litany of mushroom entrepreneurs who are raring to start up their mushroom projects. Their levels of zeal differ but the resolve is the same. I have noted however during my own formative years that it takes more than brawn to turn a vision into action. Below are some 6 factors that are key to the success of that vision to action cycle.

1. Live your vision

Our culture tends to stifle the entrepreneurial spirit in the sense that we have been raised to accept either what has been done before or at least to avoid ‘surreal’ imaginations. In fact I have found that the most influential thought leaders and inventors the world and years over were considered delusional for dreaming things that had never happened anywhere at all. Coming closer to home, I have grown up in a season where some of the key thinkers, entrepreneurs and inventors in Zimbabwe were given harsh criticisms, even ridiculed. Strive Masiiwa, and Daniel Chingoma come to mind. Strive has gone on to break almost all his barriers to become one of the best thoughtleaders in the world. Chingoma is still striving. At one point during my period of employ at SIRDC, I came across a certain Chombe who then expressed a sense of having ‘arrived’ and was keen to entrust the Zimbabwe Technology Centre with all his lifetime’s work and retire from the torment of unrealised inventions. These are people who believed in their dreams. They cared to dream beyond the confines of their accepted realities. Now for mushroom entrepreneurs or mushroprenuers as I  have since coined, the road is much different in the present day Zimbabwe, because the activity is poorly understood, badly practiced and vague to most people. I always happily brush all these negatives aside as good barriers to entry for would be competitors. However, my point is dare to dream, but for you to make noise, live that dream. Avoid doubting your resolve and have your story on your finger tips all the time. Let the world curse you for now, but don’t be driven away from your vision.

2. Find a ‘launchpad’

They call it capital, I call it the launchpad. It can be anything but some people picture it as liquid cash. Most people carry a good vision for a season which they ultimately let die after failing to raise ‘capital’. In my terms I say after failing to launch. In the past two days I have met two people who are very determined. They have mushroom visions at different levels of incubation, the other had matured but launched badly, the other is raring to go and has conceived her launchpad. In fact a third person I also know is about to abort the vision for failing to find a launchpad. Ideally in mushroom enterprise capital is not break-neck, and if you start good, your project can be the launchpad for other more lucrative enterprises. But challenge is, most entrepreneurs refuse to define their launchpad. I’ve heard many talk about capital and define it as liquid cash. To me this approach limits what is in your charge. An ideal launchpad should be within your grasp, not a far away hope. A launchpad can be well wishers willing to fork out some soft cash towards your vision for eventual payback or a Big Brother who’s been in the industry for longer and is willing to spot your progress, so find one such launchpad or a number of them in categories and launch.

3. Break your vision into action plans.

A vision can only be too much to handle if you have not broken it into definitive work plans. Most people I know will never plan until the launch date, and the results are always disastrous. Failure to plan is planning to fail. I have a close friend and colleague who is good at sitting down to plan without the capital as they call it or launchpad in my jargon. He makes sketches and finds all the missing information way before he even has a cent in his pocket, then shelves these plans. This approach of what I call ‘blueprinting’ has the advantage of adding a touch-and-go flare to your ideations for when your launchpad finally happens.

4. Have faith

After all has been done, just sit tight and have faith. I have exhorted many Rockshield Train-A-Farmer trainees that an entrepreneur should never have a victim’s attitude. They will call you bossy because you are figured out. Have a frame of mind that ‘believes’ and has faith in you. And have faith in God to make things work. If faith is absent in the equation, the vision becomes a burden.

5. Find Daily inspiration

Find stories to lift you up from any source and get inspired everyday towards your vision. I am one avid biography reader. I feel inspired by personal stories of thought leaders who have made it where I want to be. Every discouragement they faced, every criticism and how they got above it. It clears perspective in my present and future obstacles.

6. No game plan works but your own.

Don’t be too much of a copy cat and don’t be too creative either. Let your personal experiences shape the eventual business you will build, and have confidence in your plan. Someone once alluded to the fact that sales experience makes the best entrepreneur, learning to live with negative sentiments from your target audience makes good practicing ground for flowing against the tide as most entrepreneurs will tend to do.

My envisioned candidate for a successful mushroom entrepreneur ought to have experience in recharge card sales, I think.

Masimba Blessing Mpahlo blogs in his personal capacity. He can
be reached on.
Cell/WhatsApp: 0772888752
Email: rockshieldmasimba@gmail.com
Twitter: @mbmpahlo
Skype: mmpahlo