How mushrooms could mean economic independence for Benin’s women

Mushrooms collected from Toui-Kilibo reserve in Benin, where mycologist Olyvia Fadeyi is teaching women how to grow them. All photographs: Nourou Yorou, University of Parakou Photograph: Nourou Yorou/University of Parakou

At the forest’s edge, a scientist is giving a lesson on the mushrooms that grow here in the damp ground around the trees of Toui-Kilibo reserve in Benin. Olyvia Fadeyi is a mycologist – she studies fungi – and is teaching the women from the village of Yaoui how best to harness the economic value of this strangest of crops. Mushrooms can be cultivated year round, in back gardens, on vertically stacked shelves, rather than waiting for the naturally abundant ones in the rainy season.

Women from three villages have taken part in Fadeyi’s (pictured centre), pilot project, which was overseen by the University of Parakou. Photograph: University of Parakou