Biggest mushroom info centre for P'pang
Published on: Thursday, June 29, 2017
Penampang: The biggest Mushroom Information Centre will be built soon at Kg Konsolung, Togudon Km47 along the Penampang-Tambunan Rd. District Barisan Nasional Chief Datuk Donald Mojuntin during a visit to the Korporasi Pembangunan Desa(KPD) office, here, Sunday, said Togudon was chosen due to its success for being the largest producer of mushrooms in Malaysia. The centre would be a tourist attraction, he said, adding that the idea of mushroom cultivation was mooted in 1986 when Tan Sri Bernard Dompok was State Agriculture Minister.
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Only 40 farmers were involved when it was first initiated and the purpose was to lift them out of poverty similar to rubber growing by LIGS or Sabah Rubber Industry Board. "There were delays due to land matters while Dompok, Datuk Philip Lasimbang (ex-elected representative) and myself as BN representative continuously pushed for the allocation, he said. "This project is very successful. Hence, I urge the 74 farmers now involved to continue working together for their own good," he said.KPD Project Officer Jackson Ampias in his briefing said the research done by them in 1989 showed the Togudon area to be very suitable for mushroom farming. He hoped construction of the largest information centre would give added motivation to the farmers to concentrate on mushroom farming to produce quality output.
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The original 40 participants in the beginning were given a target of 1,000 to 3,000 grow bags but now a local leader is growing them in 20,000 bags. Hence, the poverty level eradication is more than achieved, he said."Initially we planned to build a factory here but the government gave us the information centre, instead.
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Out of 50 acres applied, 30 acres were approved," he said. The buildings to be built include a visitor centre, audio-visual room, restaurant, toilets and staff quarters. At present the road, car parks and water tanks are being constructed followed by the buildings which will be environmental friendly, meaning no hill cuttings as they will perch the hillslope partly on columns. Ampias is not sure of the exact project cost. However the overall allocation is RM5 million.Ampias said KPD wants the farmer to concentrate on one species of mushroom called "Shiitake" (pronounced by Japanese as C-takae) and scientific name Lentinula Edodes where "edodes" is Latin meaning edible. He said Shiitake is most suitable, very popular in the market, last one week, needs water only and not attacked by any insect.The cultivation only requires grow bags of about 1 kg each consisting of saw dust, padi husk powder and calcium carbonate chalk in proportion of 100:10:1 respectively. Water is added around 60-65pc and the mixture is steamed for 8 hours to remove unwanted organisms.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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The seeds of the mushroom are tissue cultures produced by KPD specialists at a factory in Kundasang and these are then added into the grow bags in measured quantity.Also present during the briefing and site visit were Regional Officer of LIGS Datuk Thomas Jimulis, Penampang District Chief Bryan Matasing and Upko officials. - Oswald Supi