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Brings life back in Uttarakhand villages with mushroom farming
“People in Uttarakhand were leaving their village to seek jobs in cities due to no fixed source of income! The problem of unemployment had to be solved using the strength that lies in farming. However the traditional farming of paddy and vegetables was not lucrative enough to drive them back promising a bright future. Looking for a solution I visited Dehradun wholesale mandi and found mushroom to be priced dearly than all other vegetables. It was being sold at Rs. 200/kg and yearly price variations was told to be between Rs. 200-400. I hit the jackpot and started working on the same,” shares Ms. Divya Rawat, Founder, Soumya Foods. “Further as mushroom is grown indoors it safeguards the crop loss from natural calamities and wild animals which had been a constant threat to our Uttarakhand farmers.”
Ms. Divya Rawat
Soumya Foods became one stop for villagers and youth for all their needs pertaining to mushroom farming be it spawn, guidance or any other assistance. The production and spawn lab is located at Mothrowala Village, Dehradun, Uttarakhand. It was started in 2013 and the spawn laboratory has been established recently.
Ms. Rawat then took training on mushroom farming from ICAR-Directorate of Mushroom Research, Solan and started her own mushroom cultivation unit. When asked about capital investment she responds, “While I was growing mushroom I found it is really interesting but expensive due to high investment in setting the infrastructure. So I made few changes and turned the entire process cost effective by replacing aluminum/steel racks with bamboo rack for vertical mushroom cultivation and nylone ropes for growing mushroom in hanging method. It brought down the capital investment cost to Rs. 40-50 thousand which earlier was more than Rs. 2 lakh.”
Another change she introduced was growing three different mushroom varieties following the seasons and natural climatic conditions of Uttarakhand. “It was done so to take advantage of temperature from the environment. It eliminated the use of air conditioners/humidifiers/temperature controller. We grow milky mushroom in summer as it requires 30-40 degree Celsius, post summer when it is moderate temperature of we grow oyster mushroom and in winter button mushrooms are grown,” she elaborates.
Initially in 2013 when Ms. Rawat started growing mushroom she sourced the spawn from Delhi but later as her popularity grew and other farmers started associating with her she started her own laboratory to produce and supply spawns. The spawns are also developed in the natural conditions following the season and climate change.
Farmers from across the country are buying spawns from Soumya Foods. “We produce 12 ton spawns every month. The spawns are packed in one kg pack and sold to buyers in any quantity they ask for because every farmer is important to us. It is sold at Rs. 100/kg,” she informs. Spawns sales are exclusively for the farmers but to create more demand for mushroom it is important that our end consumer become more and more inclined to the taste of mushroom. Thereby Ms. Rawat continues to grow and sell mushroom and plans to increase the daily production to 1-1.5ton/day.
Mushroom at Soumya Foods was sold earlier to wholesale buyers but now they prefer to sell directly to B2B and B2C buyers. “The price is kept reasonable at Rs. 200-250/kg in retail earlier for wholesaler it was Rs. 150-200/kg. Soon we shall be having a retail outlet too. We have the responsibility to increase the demand for mushroom to assist our associate farmers so we conduct many awareness programs. Large quantity of mushroom is sold at these programs as well,” she adds.
Speaking on low shelf life on mushroom, Ms. Rawat says, “Button mushroom has shelf life of 24 hours, oyster has 48 hours and milky stays long for 7-8 days. If farmers are not able to sell their mushroom produce due to some reason then they should sun-dry the mushrooms. It is the best way to make most of the untimely sales because dried mushrooms are also sold at high price. The shelf life of dried mushroom is 6-8 months.”
She concludes, “Mushroom farming has brought enormous change in my village and it is spreading to other parts of the state as well. Reverse migration is happening but will take its own time to be visible largely! At the moment I am focused on providing the right technical and implementation guidance to the farmers who are associated with us. We are progressing rapidly everyday but it is a long way to reach our ultimate destination to have a directorate of mushroom here and make Uttarakhand a mushroom capital of India!!”
Ms. Rawat did her Post Graduation in Social Work and served for an NGO for 2.5 years before turning entrepreneur with mushroom cultivation.
Contact details:
Soumya Foods
Mothrowala Village, Dehradun, India
Phone: +91 7409993860
“People in Uttarakhand were leaving their village to seek jobs in cities due to no fixed source of income! The problem of unemployment had to be solved using the strength that lies in farming. However the traditional farming of paddy and vegetables was not lucrative enough to drive them back promising a bright future. Looking for a solution I visited Dehradun wholesale mandi and found mushroom to be priced dearly than all other vegetables. It was being sold at Rs. 200/kg and yearly price variations was told to be between Rs. 200-400. I hit the jackpot and started working on the same,” shares Ms. Divya Rawat, Founder, Soumya Foods. “Further as mushroom is grown indoors it safeguards the crop loss from natural calamities and wild animals which had been a constant threat to our Uttarakhand farmers.”
Ms. Divya Rawat
Soumya Foods became one stop for villagers and youth for all their needs pertaining to mushroom farming be it spawn, guidance or any other assistance. The production and spawn lab is located at Mothrowala Village, Dehradun, Uttarakhand. It was started in 2013 and the spawn laboratory has been established recently.
Ms. Rawat then took training on mushroom farming from ICAR-Directorate of Mushroom Research, Solan and started her own mushroom cultivation unit. When asked about capital investment she responds, “While I was growing mushroom I found it is really interesting but expensive due to high investment in setting the infrastructure. So I made few changes and turned the entire process cost effective by replacing aluminum/steel racks with bamboo rack for vertical mushroom cultivation and nylone ropes for growing mushroom in hanging method. It brought down the capital investment cost to Rs. 40-50 thousand which earlier was more than Rs. 2 lakh.”
Another change she introduced was growing three different mushroom varieties following the seasons and natural climatic conditions of Uttarakhand. “It was done so to take advantage of temperature from the environment. It eliminated the use of air conditioners/humidifiers/temperature controller. We grow milky mushroom in summer as it requires 30-40 degree Celsius, post summer when it is moderate temperature of we grow oyster mushroom and in winter button mushrooms are grown,” she elaborates.
Initially in 2013 when Ms. Rawat started growing mushroom she sourced the spawn from Delhi but later as her popularity grew and other farmers started associating with her she started her own laboratory to produce and supply spawns. The spawns are also developed in the natural conditions following the season and climate change.
Farmers from across the country are buying spawns from Soumya Foods. “We produce 12 ton spawns every month. The spawns are packed in one kg pack and sold to buyers in any quantity they ask for because every farmer is important to us. It is sold at Rs. 100/kg,” she informs. Spawns sales are exclusively for the farmers but to create more demand for mushroom it is important that our end consumer become more and more inclined to the taste of mushroom. Thereby Ms. Rawat continues to grow and sell mushroom and plans to increase the daily production to 1-1.5ton/day.
Mushroom at Soumya Foods was sold earlier to wholesale buyers but now they prefer to sell directly to B2B and B2C buyers. “The price is kept reasonable at Rs. 200-250/kg in retail earlier for wholesaler it was Rs. 150-200/kg. Soon we shall be having a retail outlet too. We have the responsibility to increase the demand for mushroom to assist our associate farmers so we conduct many awareness programs. Large quantity of mushroom is sold at these programs as well,” she adds.
Speaking on low shelf life on mushroom, Ms. Rawat says, “Button mushroom has shelf life of 24 hours, oyster has 48 hours and milky stays long for 7-8 days. If farmers are not able to sell their mushroom produce due to some reason then they should sun-dry the mushrooms. It is the best way to make most of the untimely sales because dried mushrooms are also sold at high price. The shelf life of dried mushroom is 6-8 months.”
She concludes, “Mushroom farming has brought enormous change in my village and it is spreading to other parts of the state as well. Reverse migration is happening but will take its own time to be visible largely! At the moment I am focused on providing the right technical and implementation guidance to the farmers who are associated with us. We are progressing rapidly everyday but it is a long way to reach our ultimate destination to have a directorate of mushroom here and make Uttarakhand a mushroom capital of India!!”
Ms. Rawat did her Post Graduation in Social Work and served for an NGO for 2.5 years before turning entrepreneur with mushroom cultivation.
Contact details:
Soumya Foods
Mothrowala Village, Dehradun, India
Phone: +91 7409993860