Innovative mushroom farming in Vietnam wins grand prize

Fargreen, a social enterprise using technology to convert rice straw waste into a product that can be used for mushroom farming, edged out five other finalist teams to win the grand prize of $12,500 at the University of Washington's Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition, held last week in Seattle.

Trang Tran

Trang Tran is a co-founder of Fargreen, a social enterprise using technology to convert rice straw waste into a product that can be used for mushroom farming. Fargreen won the grand prize at the University of Washington's Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition.

The business model presented by Tran and Telang would reduce greenhouse gases produced by the burning of rice straw waste – 20 million tons annually according to the team – while creating an opportunity for farmers to diversify their crop yields and gain additional income by growing and selling mushrooms.

"We plan to use the prize money to build our first mushroom facilities for ten farmers who already signed up to be in our network," said Tran. "The construction and production will happen this summer."

For more information about the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition and the Foster School of Business, visit foster.washington.edu.