Dorothy Basemera Otim picks wild mushrooms at her compound in Kampala, Uganda. BUSHENYI, UGANDA — Dorothy Basemera Otim loves a hot bowl of wild mushroom gravy. The retired news editor and television personality says for as long as she can remember, she has looked forward to the annual season when suddenly mushrooms spring out of the ground. But lately, that has been rare and unpredictable. “In the last three years mushrooms have come twice and in different seasons,” she says, as she bends over to pluck some. Otim thinks wild mushrooms have become rarer because not many parts of the half-acre plot she lives on lie undisturbed long enough to create the right conditions for them to grow. Like many Ugandans in urban areas, she now grows her own vegetables about three times a year, which means the ground is continually turned. The only place mushrooms appear in is the small corner under a mango tree where the dark shadow prevents vegetables from growing. The clearing of natural forests to create space for agriculture and human settlement has led to a steep decline in wild mushrooms, which used to be a cheap source of nutrients and were used as […]
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