Aline Neutzling Brum
Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil
Title: Mushrooms cultivation as an alternative to rural development in South of Brazil
Biography
Biography: Aline Neutzling Brum
Abstract
This article is going to focus on cultivated mushrooms, describing the opportunities and facilities that mushroom cultivation develops in rural areas affected by economic crisis. The Colonial Fungi Research Center aims for research and rural development, which is located in Pelotas, South of Brazil. This area had an important contribution to chicken production until the end of last year. Considering the failure of the local chicken agroindustry, farmers are in debit and without expectation to production. The structure of chicken production can be adapted to mushrooms cultivation and this research center is putting efforts on this new way. Mushrooms have been widely used as food and very often as delicious and nutritious food. Their medicinal values include wound-healing, immunity-enhancement, and tumor-retarding effects. As the amount of wild mushrooms is rare in South of Brazil, cultivated mushrooms would not only provide food security, but also sustainable agriculture and more nutritious diets. The rapid growth and market expansion of the mushroom business is a great incentive of rural development driven by bio-innovation and technological diffusion. It is also an excellent example of rural economic development and poverty alleviation as well as typical recycle-economy and sustainable agriculture. One of the low-cost, appropriate technologies for rural development is the production of the tropical mushroom, in this case oyster mushroom. The expansion of the commercial production of the oyster mushroom could be the result of several complementary factors: technology available and climate favorable, manpower available and high demand for the product.