One of the most versatile and environmentally friendly is mushrooms as a product of Integrated Farming Systems (IFS) due to their flexibility and numerous benefits. Mushrooms are a part of IFS thus they contribute to sustainable agriculture by intelligent recycling of agricultural waste products such as straw, sawdust, and husks while using substrates for cultivation. Not only does this process give us an important crop, but also it helps with the issue of recycling organic waste, lowering the environmental costs. Additionally, mushroom farming is able to diversify farm income, which is one of the plant alternatives that farmers can grow along with their current crops without heavy initial cost and large space requirements.
Nutritionally, mushrooms are rich and, besides, they are useful for food security in the sense that they can grow throughout the year and are full of low-calorie, high-protein food. A spent mushroom substrate, on the other hand, except for it being an organic fertilizer, helps as a soil conditioner that gives the soil a share of essential nutrients, aggrandizing its fertility. The synergistic effect enhances crop yields and makes better the development in the following crop cycles.
Furthermore, the interconnection of mushroom farming with livestock farming such as poultry, other livestock, and aquaculture forms a more robust and self-sustaining farming model. Interconnections facilitate organic and natural methods of production, thus creating a balanced ecosystem. For this reason, including mushrooms in IFS is the best way to be holistic toward farming that supports the economic issues, the environmental ones, and food security.