From zero investment to Rs 52 lakh turnover, how this Manipur housewife built a successful mushroom business

In 2011, some young men in Rajkumari Binita Devi’s village began mushroom farming in a house next to hers. They rented the house in Moirangkampu Sajeb village of Manipur’s Imphal East district and sold the produce locally. However, within a few months, the landlord asked them to vacate the space. By then, the men had also found other employment opportunities.

“Since they had to vacate in a few days, they left all their oyster mushroom bags, spawns, straw and other items at my house. When I asked them what I would do with all the materials, they briefed me about mushroom cultivation and left,” Binita tells 30Stades.

After understanding the process, Binita put up 50 bags from the material, for which she had made zero investment. 

“Despite my limited knowledge, they yielded about 70 kg of mushrooms and I sold them at Rs 80 per kg in the local market and to villagers (earning Rs 5600),” she recollects.

Also Read: Engineer couple builds Rs 15 crore business of exotic mushrooms; first to grow wild gucchi indoors

Today, Binita clocks an annual turnover of Rs 52 lakh, including Rs 40 lakh from fresh oyster mushrooms and Rs 12 lakh from mushroom pickles, papads, noodles and other value-added products.

The initial success and failure

Encouraged by the production from 50 bags, Binita prepared more bags by boiling paddy straw, drying it while retaining 40 percent moisture, and adding spawns (mushroom seeds).

“Oyster mushrooms typically give three harvests over their growing period, with the initial yield being higher than subsequent yields. The total cropping period is around 75 days, with the first harvest after 45 days of initial incubation,” Binita explains.

Also Read: From unsold packets to Rs 5.5 lakh monthly revenue, how this man built a mushroom business

She grew production from 50 bags to 200 bags and then to 500 bags by 2014. “I was doing all this without training and missed some points,” the agripreneur says. 

"In 2014, all my 500 bags developed a fungus. Disheartened, I did not grow mushrooms for two years,” she recollects.

However, as luck would have it, Binita learned about a mushroom training programme by ICAR near her village. “I saw the ad in a newspaper, and my husband encouraged me to attend the seven-day training. I learned about growing mushrooms and also spawn production,” she says.

Restarting with confidence

With all her mistakes now clear, Binita began again in 2016 with the free mushroom mother culture provided by ICAR during the training. “My husband and I sanitised a room in our house using a spray,” she says.

Also Read: With Rs150 investment, how this housewife built a mushroom business earning Rs3 lakh a month 

She also needed an autoclave, which sterilises the mushroom substrate by using high-pressure steam to kill microorganisms. This ensures a clean and safe environment for the mycelium to grow.

“I used a 20-litre pressure cooker for sterilisation instead of an autoclave since I did not have too much money for investment. In place of laminar, I used big candles to protect the spawn from unwanted microbes,” she says.

Binita put about 500 bags again in 2016 and collected around 2kg of mushrooms per bag in three harvests. “It sold at Rs120 per kg and I regained confidence to expand cultivation,” the woman entrepreneur adds.

Expansion and value addition

A couple of months later, a bank manager, a relative of her neighbour, tasted the oyster mushrooms. Intrigued, he visited their house to see the cultivation. “He asked my husband why I was not expanding to more bags. We told them about the lack of funds for investment. The officer asked us to visit the bank, and I received a loan of Rs 5 lakh in 2017,” she says.

With that, Binita constructed another mushroom cultivation room of 70ft x 80 ft, and there has been no looking back since then. 

“I now cultivate oyster mushrooms in four cycles of 3,000 bags each annually,” she says.

However, the production during summer goes down to 300 kg per month, while it is 100 kg daily in peak winter. “To deal with the fluctuations, I started processing oyster mushrooms to make value-added products like pickles, noodles, papads, and bori (fritters),” Binita points out.

“We sell the products through Manipur’s Horticulture Department in Delhi and Guwahati. We will soon export to Dubai also,” she says. Binita also provides training and support to others eager to learn about mushroom farming. 

(Rashmi Pratap is a Mumbai- based journalist specialising in financial, business and socio-economic reporting)

Also Read: Five women mushroom farmers who started from a room and now earn lakhs

Look up our YouTube Channel