This wonderful article was part of the threads that was deleted, when our great site NAIRALAND was attacked. Thank God i was able to retrieve it ...

MUSHROOM

The greatest difficulty in feeding man is to supply a sufficient quantity of the body- building material i.e protein. The other three nutritional categories are: the source of energy food (carbohydrates and fats), accessory food factors (vitamins) and inorganic compounds which are indispensable to good health. Water is of course essential (Chang and Buswell, 2003). In addition to their good proteins, mushrooms are a relatively good source of the following individual nutrients: fat, phosphorus, iron and vitamins including thiamine, riboflavin, ascorbic acid, ergosterine and niacin. They are low in calories, carbohydrates and calcium.
In ancient Egypt, people consider mushroom as the plant of immortality, and the Pharaohs, respecting its delicious flavors, decreed that mushroom should not be touched by commoners.
Today, the science of mushroom has been fully developed for many species in the developed countries in Europe, North America and Asia. For example Agaricus bisporus,mostly produced in North America and European countries. Volvariella volvacea produced in china, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia. Oyster mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus, P. pulmonarius produced in Asia, Italy and Hungary. The Jew’s ear Auricularia auricula is produced in China for centuries. While these countries are now deriving a great economic benefits (in mushroom exports) and increased the dietary of their people, Nigeria is still behind in this regard. Only a few smart entrepreneurs are into the production of mushroom in Nigeria, however this is not enough to meet the high demands of the health oriented public. There is alot of demand for Mushrooms in Nigeria due to the continous increase in population.

BENFITS

(1) Mushrooms offer tremendous applications as they can be used as food and medicines besides their key ecological roles. They represent as one of the world’s greatest untapped resources of nutrition and palatable food of the future. Mushrooms have been found effective against HIV, cancer, cholesterol reduction, stress, insomnia, asthma, allergies and diabetes (Bobek and Galbavy, 1999)
(2) The demand for mushroom is higher than supply all over the world. (here lies a great opportunity for those that are smart).
(3) Mushrooms are very cheap to cultivate, they grow on waste substances such as, Sawdust, Wood shavings, Cotton waste, Rice bran, Wheat bran, Yam peels, Cassava peels and other agro-industrial wastes.
(4) Mushrooms are relatively fast growing organisms. Some tropical mushrooms can be harvested and consumed within 10 days after spawning.
(5) You do not need a land, a room is enough to start with.
(6) Thus the activity can generate new jobs, especially in tropical or less developed countries.
(7) The return on investment is 500%!