World is now Afghan farmer’s oyster (mushroom)

Kabul — At his farm in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, Rasool Rezaie gently picks oyster mushrooms, part of the about 30kg he sells in markets daily.

Rezaie learnt how to grow mushrooms during a stay in Russia, and set up his farm two years ago.

“I was introduced to a mushroom farm in Russia by a friend, and I started working there, where I learnt how to produce the mushroom spores and cultivate them,” said Rezaie, who first moved to Russia in 2012 due to insecurity and unemployment in Afghanistan.

In 2016 more than 1-million people, a quarter of them Afghans, applied for asylum in Europe, Rezaie among them.

His claim was rejected and he returned to Afghanistan, where he initially worked as a shopkeeper. But the memory of mushroom farming lingered.

“I said to myself ‘when I have experience of this profession, why shouldn’t I do it?’" he said.

He began by growing mushrooms in a single room in his own house, producing 4-5 kg for markets. Today, Rezaie said he earns about 4,500 Afghanis a day and is optimistic about his future.

He has even begun supplying spores to others looking to set up their own mushroom farms, a rare example of domestic farming in landlocked Afghanistan where seeds are usually imported.

Rezaie said mushroom-growing picked up during the coronavirus pandemic, with people looking for a new source of income as businesses shuttered.

Zakir Hussain Mohammadi, a vendor who sells about 10kg of mushrooms daily at a local Kabul market, said interest from consumers was also on the rise.

Rezaie hopes other farmers too will grow mushrooms and change the image of Afghanistan as a global producer of opium. 

Reuters