Cambodia – From Mushroom waste into environmentally friendly organic fertilizer

Farmers in Sombo Village, Kompong Thom Province, Cambodia, have started using organic farming technology in their crops, by converting wasted mushroom waste, into chemicals-free organic fertilizer for vegetables and consumers. Mr. Sean Sorphalla, the owner of one of the organic farms, stated that the use of mushroom waste on his farm helps to fertilize the soil, in addition to making the farm a place to teach local agricultural students in this field. Sorphalla is looking forward that all citizens will support the technology of organic vegetables, especially since the chemicals added to vegetables are not good for health.

A student from Kompong who commented on this said
“First of all, I want to say hello, we are from Kompong Thom High School led by our teacher. We are here today to plant trees and to clean the environment in this organic farm during world environment day. A clean environment is very important for life because, if the environment full of pollutions or trash, it will affect the surrounding life. In the name of youth, I have to take care of the environment.
Mr. Sean Sorphalla - Business owner who commented on this said
“This organic farm just started up about a few months ago. My background is a mushroom farmer, our mushroom company called Sangha Mushroom (Handsome Mushroom) located in Phnom Penh, and our production place at Batey Mean Chey Province. Our mission is to grow mushroom close to the kitchen, it is mean our business has to be close to the consumer, so when we collect the yield, we can deliver quickly to the market, then the consumer can have fresh mushroom for cooking. This farm is about 24 hectares, at the beginning, we use only 1 hectare for testing because we want to know how effective is compost made from mushroom waste? And does our plantation (beetroot) can grow better in this area, or not? If I can get the result as expected, I will increase 9 hectares to plant the only beetroot.”
“Mushroom’s mycelium is good for the land when we use it for planting, It helps re-fertilize the soil, this we call micro restoration. We can apply it on the chemical land farm, and also my water container my staff always threw some package of mushroom into it, so it will create plankton, then I put some fish in there, its growth very quick.”
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