Mushroom farming in the hills

For Nipu Tripura life was full of uncertainty like the other women in the hills. During the bad days of COVID-19 she couldn't even run her grocery store. But overcoming all obstacles she has now became an agricultural entrepreneur. Before telling her remarkable story, I would like to say that television, particularly media, has played a big role in her agricultural development. She has not only written her success story, but made employment opportunities for many others. Nipu, a resident of Thakurchhara Notun Bazaar area in Khagrachhari, watched one of my episodes on mushroom cultivation of Magura's Babul Akhter on my YouTube channel and felt she could also start mushroom cultivation like Babul. 

Later, Nipu, who had no formal training in mushroom farming, went to Khagrachhari but couldn't obtain any training from there. But that couldn't not stop her. She then decided to meet Babul in Magura. Last year, she took a short training from Babul and started mushroom cultivation by taking Tk 3 lakh (USD 3462) from her husband. During the early 90s, I did a documentary on renowned mushroom farmer Jahangir on Bangladesh Television's Mati O Manush (Soil & People) programme. Back then, Jahangir was also very young and enthusiastic, like Nipu. Among numerous mushroom entrepreneurs across the country, many women are also doing it at their homes. By reading news and watching TV and social media contents many mushroom farmers have emerged with diversified farming ideas and products now. 

In the first year, Nipu earned Tk 9 lakh (USD 10,387) by selling commercial mushroom spawns. Now, she is developing and producing 10 to 12 thousand spawns every month, but she dreams of producing 25,000 spawns per month. She has employed eight women at her mushroom farm and established herself as a woman entrepreneur within a short time. She has also formed a cooperative society with 20 women members and giving them free training. Nipu is now dreaming of mother culture of mushrooms and expecting government's assistance in this regard as well.

In the context of Bangladesh, mushroom is a promising crop and has a great importance as it is nutritious, tasty and a major medicinal food. In densely populated and rapidly growing Bangladesh, the demand for food is increasing, but the supply is facing the imbalance. Besides, huge quantities of mushrooms can be produced in a small fallow land. Moreover, the climate of the country is favourable for the cultivation throughout the year. Mushroom farming is environment friendly and tolerant to natural disasters. According to Mushroom Development Institute, the opportunity of mushroom production is increasing rapidly. At present, about 40,000 tonnes of mushrooms, valued around Tk 800 crore (USD 92.3 million), are being produced every year. About 1.5 lakh people are involved in the production and marketing of the food items. There are opportunities to export mushrooms to different countries as almost all the economically developed countries of the world import mushroom.

Mushrooms can add a significant contribution to our agriculture sector and courageous woman entrepreneur like Nipu has shown us the way. We can ensure employment of many unemployed as well. Nipu is one of those who are showing us the light of hope. I hope that the country will move forward towards extensive mushroom cultivation and the government will take necessary measures for its betterment.