National workshop on wild edible mushrooms

Our workshop on wild edible mushroom in Tabora on 27 and 28 February 2025 graced by the Sikonge District Commissioner, Colonel Magembe, on behalf of the Tabora Regional Commissioner, Hon. Paul Matiko Chacha, brought together over 60 participants per day and was very successful : the experts, policymakers, pickers, academics and stakeholders from various sectors gathered to assess the potential and address the challenges of wild edible mushrooms value chain in Tanzania.

Major Outcome: 

• All participants acknowledge the importance of promoting wild edible mushrooms for their nutritional values, their potential to generate additional income for women and being an incentive to protect the natural forests.
• Creation of a National Mushroom Forum Tanzania — a platform to unify mushroom stakeholders, advocate for policy reforms, and promote mushroom commercialization at local, national, and international markets.
• TAFORI and the different universities will push for more research on wild edible mushrooms.
• The local and regional administrations will support more the mushroom groups (loans to invest in material and infrastructures and support their procedures to be registered and get the permits to access the forest).
• The TFS will ease the way of getting permits to enter the Forest Reserves and TAWA and will consider the access of the pickers for the future management plans of Game Reserves that are close to villages.
• The mushroom pickers are now connected to some stakeholders such as TBS, SIDO and the sellers from the Tabora market. They have opportunities to get their products certified and access new markets.
• On its side ADAP will continue its role as a facilitator and build the capacity of local pickers.

The main challenges are:

• Limited awareness of wild mushrooms (existence, ecology, edibility, etc.).
• Regulations restricting mushroom harvesting in Game Reserves and the complex procedures for accessing Forest Reserves under TFS.Absence of a national strategy for non-wood forest products.
• Gaps in mushroom processing, packaging, and connections to the markets.
• Deforestation and illegal grazing that destroy mushrooms.

A huge thanks to our partner for this workshop : The Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (TAFORI),  Adansonia Consulting and Fédération Genevoise de Coopération.