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Wild mushrooms supplement incomes of rural dwellers in Zambia

Published : 31 Jan 2021, 11:33

  DF News Desk
Rural dwellers sell a variety of edible wild mushrooms along the road in central Zambia on Jan. 25, 2021. Photo: Xinhua by Lillian Banda.

It is 5 a.m. in the morning and Nandi Kasonde is already in the bush picking up mushrooms.

"One has to wake up early to avoid the crowd catching up with them. The fewer people there are, the more mushrooms you have and the better returns," explains the 15-year-old girl who resides in Kobowa village in Kapri Mposhi, central Zambia, reported Xinhua.

According to her, this yearly exercise provides for her and her siblings' school fees as well as ensures some form of food security for her family over the years.

She further revealed that her family makes about 3,000 Zambian Kwacha (about 140 U.S. dollars) every month from selling edible wild mushrooms to traders from various urban areas of the country, who go on to resell the products.

Edible wild mushrooms remain an important component of the Zambian diet, more so in rural parts of the country, particularly during hunger months, which is the period before the harvest.

Many rural areas in Zambia are usually awash with edible wild mushrooms during the rainy season which usually runs from late October to around April.

These mushrooms are a delicacy in Zambia and it is for this reason that many rural dwellers ensure that they maximize earnings from the sale of these mushrooms to boost their incomes.

Damaless Chomba, who collects and sells a range of edible wild mushrooms, said that the mushrooms are providing some financial breather for many rural households that have been adversely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This year has been particularly tough because of a reduction in economic activities. For now, we rely on mushrooms for our livelihoods as well as sustenance," said Chomba, a resident of Saini village in Zambia's Central Province.