Speaking at the opening ceremony, a representative for the Bo District Agriculture Officer, Abu Bakarr Sidikie Conteh maintained that his ministry has a duty to collaborate with partners to sensitize farmers on food valued chain.

He praised ITTA for organizing the training on cultivation methods aimed at growing medicinal mushrooms, using cassava by products.

He encouraged the trainees to inculcate the skills and training methods learned during the three days exercise.

In her presentation, facilitator Mrs. Deborah L. Narh Mensah, a research scientist at CSIR-Food Research Institute in Ghana, delivered a presentation on the substrate preparation, bed presentation and inoculation, incubation and harvesting.

Madam Mensah, encouraged the farmers to work hard as the raw materials required for the mushroom production are easily available in their communities and expressed hope that the mushroom business would thrive.

Natural Resources Manager and Agronomist at ITTA, Sylvanus Fannah maintained that ITTA has been closely working with farming groups, especially in communities where cassava processing factories have been established.

He expressed hope that the farmers would continue to benefit from food value addition trainings, and encouraged the beneficiaries to utilize the knowledge gained and put to proper use the spawns received.

He further disclosed that they have a close working relationship with the University of Sierra Leone to establish a laboratory for the preparation of the mushroom spawn (seeds) towards the end of this year.

Senior Technologist at CSIR–Food Research Institute of Ghana, Richard K. Takli, distributed mushroom spawn (seeds) to the respective farmers groups.