The $371,000 grant supports the exploration of the effects of using a biological recycling strategy to grow edible mushrooms. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 15, 2022

Contact: Michelle Burchett, Content Manager/Writer & Editor, 804-524-6966, mburchett@vsu.edu

ETTRICK, VA—VSU’s Dr. Adnan Yousuf of the Agricultural Research Station was awarded a $371,000 grant by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, or SARE. With this grant, Dr. Yousuf will attempt to address the large amounts of agricultural waste that are generated by our rapidly growing global population. The research aims to grow edible mushrooms of high nutritional and medicinal value from the abundant agricultural waste available.

Dr. Yousuf will evaluate not only the potential of using available agricultural waste to grow mushrooms but also the prospects of using the spent-mushroom substrate as animal feed, anthelmintic in intestinal parasite control in small ruminants, and organic fertilizer for growing horticultural crops.

 “Dr. Yousuf’s research is promising. The environment, consumers, farmers and the economy could benefit,” said Dr. Robert N. Corley III, interim dean and 1890 administrator for the College of Agriculture and vice provost for Academic and Student Affairs. “If agricultural waste can be recycled in a way that reduces waste and improves crops, then the practices put in place through this study could become the blueprint for future sustainable farming and biological recycling, further illustrating that ‘Greater Happens Here’ at VSU-ARS.”