After graduation, a young man named Abdul Halim from Handial village in Chatmohar upazila of Pabna started working in a private company. When the situation in Covid-19 took a terrible turn, he left his job and moved to the village. He was spending his days in despair as there was no way to earn.
After learning about mushroom cultivation from the mushroom development institute in Dhaka, he started cultivating medicinal and nutritious mushrooms with little capital. His busyness begins. In 2020, Halim started cultivating mushrooms on a small scale with 50 spawn packets. He started to get mushrooms in 25 to 30 days.
Halim’s farm currently has more than a thousand spawn packets of mushrooms. Four workers have been employed on his farm. Halim is paying them around Tk 20,000. Now Halim has a profit of Tk 30000 to Tk 40000 per month excluding production cost.
Halim said, “Mushroom cultivation is a lucrative business. Every day I get 12 to 15 kg of mushrooms. I am selling raw mushrooms at Tk 250 to Tk 300 per kg and dried mushrooms at Tk 1,300 to Tk 1,500 per kg. I am sending mushrooms to different districts of the country including Dhaka and Chittagong.”
“Besides, I am also sending mushrooms to different places of the country through courier service. Besides producing mushrooms, we are producing different species of mushroom seeds (spawn) and selling them. Seeing my mushroom cultivation, many unemployed youth of the area are getting interested in mushroom cultivation.
Many have started cultivating mushrooms with seeds from my farm. I believe that young unemployed youth will be able to cultivate mushrooms and get rid of unemployment if they get government patronage and loan assistance,” Halim added.
He added that the mushroom has already become quite popular across the country as it is nutritious, tasty and has medicinal properties. Many health conscious people are putting mushrooms on their food list. Due to increasing demand, mushroom cultivation is also increasing among educated youth.
Mushroom cultivation does not require cultivable land. It is also possible to grow mushrooms in unused areas around the house and on the veranda of the house. Mushroom seed production requires straw, wood powder, paper, wheat bran which is very readily available.
In this regard, Chatmohar Upazila Agriculture Officer AA Masum Billah said, “Mushrooms are very beneficial for human body. Mushrooms with medicinal properties are very nutritious and delicious. It takes less capital to cultivate. Mushroom cultivation is quite profitable.
The climate of our country is suitable for mushroom cultivation. Mushrooms can also be produced by using unused space next to the dwelling house and the veranda of the house. 12 people from Chatmohar are cultivating mushrooms.