From Rs 2000 investment to Rs 35 lakh annual turnover, how this man built a mushroom business in Odisha

After completing his MSc in Sustainable Development in Jaipur, Jatindra Barwa had to decide between a government job and entrepreneurship. While he was weighing his options, he pursued a postgraduate diploma in Food Safety and Quality Management from IGNOU.

However, entrepreneurship won hands down because he had seen his elder brother Sachindra Bawra excelling as an agripreneur at his native Rajgangpur in Sundargarh district in Odisha. Sachindra, a lecturer at a private college in Sundargarh, quit his job to pursue farming. He started with greenhouse capsicum cultivation on barren land and expanded to 30 acres with other crops over time.

“I was inspired by my brother’s success and realised that the sky is the limit if one becomes an entrepreneur. Jobs always come with restrictions,” he tells 30Stades.

Keen on agri-entrepreneurship, Jatindra returned to his village in 2006 and joined his elder brother Sachindra. After learning the skills, Jatindra took five acres of land on lease at Kutra in the Sundargarh district. 

“I began growing vegetables independently in 2009. At that time, while dealing with vegetable vendors, I learned about the market demand for mushrooms and decided to try it,” says Jatindra, whose father, Prahlad Barwa, worked in the education department at Rourkela before retirement.

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From vegetable farming to mushrooms

Having studied Zoology, he had basic knowledge about mushrooms. “But instead of starting without experience, I took training in mushroom farming from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar. That opened a new world for me,” Jatindra adds.

He bought spawns (seeds) of paddy straw mushroom and oyster mushroom at Rs8 per 200 gm (Rs40 per kg) from Bhubaneswar and put bags in a shed. Paddy straw mushrooms can be cultivated throughout the year in tropical areas, unlike button mushrooms which require cool weather or air-conditioned units.

Similarly, oyster mushrooms can be cultivated throughout the year in Odisha’s weather conditions, without air conditioning. 

“My initial investment in seeds and substrate (medium) was around Rs 2,000. The results were good and I began selling mushrooms in the local markets,” the mushroom entrepreneur says. 

Jatindra was among the first mushroom farmers in the Sundargarh district at the time. He then took a Rs1 lakh bank loan to expand his business. 

From mushrooms to spawns

However, Jatindra had to travel to Bhubaneswar, about 450 km from his farm, to procure the spawns. “That added to costs and consumed time. So I decided to take training in making mushroom spawns or seeds in the lab,” he says.

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Jatindra went back to OUAT, Bhubaneswar. This time, he took training in spawn manufacturing. The setting up of a spawn lab requires an autoclave (a pressurized steam sterilizer for substrates to prevent contamination), spawn inoculator, incubators (to maintain optimal temperature and humidity for mycelial growth) and other equipment, he explains.

Jatindra set up a small spawn unit with an initial investment of Rs 24000. His production was 20 bottles of mushroom spawn per day at that time. 

“With this, I did not have to travel to Bhubaneswar to purchase the spawns,” he says.

From 20 bottles, his production capacity has reached 1000 bottles per day. 

“This is one of the most profitable businesses. The annual turnover of my unit is around Rs35 lakh per year and I expect it to reach Rs60 lakh in the next two years,” he says.

The journey from 20 to 1000 spawns bottles

With growing demand, Jatindra shifted his small mushroom spawn unit to his farmland at Kunmuru on SH 10 at Rajgangpur in 2013. He then applied for a loan of Rs 25 lakh under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP – a credit-linked subsidy scheme) to set up a commercial unit. 

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He started with 100 bottles of mushroom spawn per day and began supplying to various places in Sundargarh and Jharsuguda districts in Odisha. His success brought him support of Rs15 lakh from the Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) in 2022. 

“I used this funding to increase the production capacity from 100 to 1000 bottles (of 400 gm each) per day.”

He supplies mushroom spawns to farmers in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Various self-help groups (SHGs), Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), government departments, and NGOs also purchase mushroom spawns from him.

Each bottle contains 400 gm of spawn and is priced at Rs40. The medium for spawn production is wheat straw mixed with calcium carbonate and other inputs. 

The expanded unit spread over 2,000 sq ft has four autoclaves, two laminar airflow machines, two BOD incubator machines, and a compact boiler among other equipment. 

Mushroom spawn is prepared using the culture grown in test tubes called mother culture. This first-generation spawn is easy to transport. These are then incubated for two weeks.

Jatindra continues to grow mushrooms but on a much smaller scale. “The daily output of mushrooms is around 10 kg. The main business now, however, is mushroom spawn production,” he says.

Jatindra now wants more farmers to work with him. “I want them to benefit directly or indirectly from modern high-tech farming and innovations,” he says.

(Malay Ray is a Rourkela-based journalist. He writes on social issues, human interest stories, startups, the environment, women empowerment and tribal life.)

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