Commercial production of mushrooms in the Magalang rural settlement project

• Main Author: Lamug, Leonardo E.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1970
• Subjects: Mushroom culture > Philippines; Business Administration, Management, and Operations
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/132
• Institution: De La Salle University

This project proposes mushroom production as one of the initial agricultural undertakings of the Magalang Rural Settlement. The aggregate settlement area devoted to mushroom production was 2.4 hectares. Each family would set up 33 mushroom beds of 3 square meters per bed, estimated to yield 5 kilos for home consumption, and a saleable volume of 10 kilos per bed. The produce was expected to satisfy part of the potential demand for mushrooms projected at 1,299,150 kilograms in 1971 and increasing yearly at the rate of approximately 120,000 kilograms. A cooperative would be organized to process the settlement produce and undertake the marketing to pre-arranged outlets. The cooperative manager and staff would provide managerial as well as technical assistance and other services to the farmers in the settlement. In addition, the cooperative would set up and maintain a mushroom laboratory to produce the spawns and provide technical assistance to the farmers. The project's financial requirements would come from Filipinas Foundation, Inc. in the form of loans to the cooperative and to the farmer. The produce of the settlement would primarily be sold as fresh, and secondarily, as canned, dried or powdered mushrooms. Marketing and distribution of the finished products would be centralized through the cooperative. The minimum return on investment of the cooperative was estimated at 18.24 percent (DCF method). The social return may take the form of immediate income to the farmer, a new hope of the farmer on government and private efforts towards the realization of effective land reform and as an example to the locality where agrarian unrest was at a critical stage. The mushroom project could undoubtedly be made a profitable venture in the Magalang Rural Settlement, provided that the culture process would be properly taught to the farmers and supervised by an acknowledged mushroom technician. The major factors for the expected success of the project were low costs, availability of raw materials, and the high market demand for mushrooms. The establishment of a laboratory by the cooperative, charged with the production of spawns would ensure the continuous availability of quality spawns for the farmers. The cooperative would play a major role toward the success of the settlement. The realization of this project, which was projected to produce 118,000 kilograms of mushrooms per year, in the first settlement of the Magalang Rural Resettlement Project was recommended as a profitable venture as well as a contribution to the solution of an effective land reform program in the Philippines.