Farmers and partners in Myanmar learn about improved rice straw mushroom production

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Myanmar’s Agricultural Mechanization Department (AMD) conducted a hands-on training on Rice Straw Based Mushroom Cultivation at the Agricultural Machinery Training Center, in Yezin, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. This training is part of a two-week workshop and training on Rice Straw Management, which ran from 4 – 14 November 2019. The training focused on developing good management practices to add value to rice byproducts and to reduce the environmental footprint of rice production caused by open field burning of rice straw.

U Aung Zaw, Deputy Director General of Planning at the AMD in Nay Pyi Taw, provided full support to the event. “This is a great opportunity to learn about rice straw management in our country,” he said.

During the training, participants learned about the techniques of growing paddy mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) outdoor using rice straw through classroom discussions and hands-on exercises in the field. Dr. Thi Thi Aung, Asst. Research Officer of Rice Bio Park, said that “the techniques we learned from the training are easy to follow, especially for the farmers.” In Myanmar, farmers use cow dung and paper box for growing mushroom, which they need to purchase. “Now they can use the cow dung for cultivation with the use of RS for mushroom production,” she added.

Participants together with their respective rice straw heap treated with lime

Participants making their substrate beds for cultivating Volvariella volvacea mushroom

Mr.Hein Htet Aung of AMD added that with this training, he gained significant knowledge that he can use to guide his colleagues and the farmers that they interact with all the time.

Additionally, Mr. Nyein Chan Moe of Welthüngerhilfe said that using the outdoor set-up would be beneficial for farmers because materials are available, easy to set up, and can be used by smallholder farmers.

This training was conducted by IRRI’s  Mechanization and Postharvest Cluster team (Dr. Nguyen Van Hung, Caling Balingbing, and Ampy Roxas) together with IRRI Myanmar team (Dr. Amy Thein and Gyaw Shine Oo) through the  Worldbank- funded Agricultural Development Support Project and in collaboration with Myanmar’s Agricultural Mechanization Department. It was attended by 25 participants from the Department of Agriculture (DOA), Rice Bio-Park from Department of Agricultural Research (DAR), AMD,  and Welthüngerhilfe.

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