Managing food waste is both a challenge and an opportunity for developping countries. Every month, the St. Baasa factory in west Ghana transforms around 400 tons of cassava into by-products. Previously, the resulting waste, around 120 tons of peel and stalks, was lost. Now the factory is testing a way to create value out of this loss.

The cassava waste is grounded and mixed with sawdust. The resulting compost is dried, bagged and injected with mushroom spawn. Around 5 days later, edible mushrooms start to sprout at cropping houses.

Expanding production capacity

‘‘We have increased our overall income by around 15 per cent with this mushroom production, said Constance Frimpong a food technologist at the factory. ‘‘This is monthly. We intend to increase our production even further. Because there is so much peel from the cassava, we will build more cropping houses for mushrooms. We are planning to increase our current production of 5 tons of mushrooms per month to 20 tons per month.’