A wild mushroom that usually grows on rotting logs in Nigerian forests could soon be grown in farms across Africa, thanks to researchers who figured out how to cultivate it using sawdust — the leftover dust from cutting wood.
Chiemeziem Agbonma Onyeka, a doctoral student at the Federal University of Technology in Owerri, Nigeria, wanted to find a way for people to grow mushrooms year-round instead of only collecting them from the wild during certain seasons. Mushrooms are nutritious and can be eaten, but in many parts of Africa, people don't realize they can be farmed like any other crop.
Onyeka and her team collected wild specimens of a mushroom species called Lentinus squarrosulus and tested whether it would grow on sawdust from three common trees: mango, African breadfruit, and African pear. Sawdust is plentiful and cheap — it's just a waste product from forestry and farming.
The results were promising. The mushrooms grew fastest and produced the most fruiting bodies on African breadfruit sawdust, with mango wood coming in second. L. squarrosulus is both edible and has medicinal value, making it doubly useful. But it faces a problem: habitat destruction is making it scarce in the wild.
"Mushroom farming in Africa is still developing," Onyeka told Mongabay. "In many regions, there is still limited awareness that mushrooms can be cultivated as a reliable year-round agricultural crop rather than only collected from the wild during specific seasons."
If farmers can grow these mushrooms reliably, it could provide a new source of protein and income for communities across the continent. Onyeka cautions that the transition to commercial farming will be gradual. Her immediate focus is on perfecting the growing methods so they can be replicated on a larger scale. She advises anyone interested in mushroom farming to seek proper training first.
Omoanghe Isikhuemhen, a mushroom expert from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University who reviewed the study, said the research shows promise but noted that future studies should measure "biological efficiency" — essentially, how much mushroom grows from a given amount of sawdust. This will help determine whether large-scale farming would be profitable.
Still, Onyeka sees a real path forward. Connecting with farmers, agricultural extension services, and businesses will be key to turning this laboratory success into actual food on tables across Nigeria and beyond.