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Rasool Rezaie puts mushrooms on the ground at his farm in Kabul, Afghanistan, on February 28 2021. Picture: REUTERS/MOHAMMAD ISMAIL
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.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
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
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