How this Bihar entrepreneur earns Rs2 lakh daily from mushroom farming

After completing his studies in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, Shashi Bhushan Tiwari went to Delhi for employment opportunities. He found a job in the Azadpur Mandi, Asia's largest wholesale market for fruits and vegetables. Soon, he started trading in fruits and vegetables, earning well for himself and his family.

“One day, at a restaurant, I had button mushroom curry. I was smitten by the Umami taste of mushrooms and liked it so much that I began researching it,” Shashi tells 30Stades.

Being a trader of fruits and vegetables, it was not difficult for him to find where mushroom was cultivated. “On weekends, I would visit mushroom growers in Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. While I kept collecting information for a long time, my work and family responsibilities did not leave me with much time to try my hand at mushroom farming,” he says.

As luck would have it, the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 brought the trading work at the Azadpur Mandi to a halt, and he moved back to his village Jasauli in the Motipur block of Muzaffarpur. Shashi decided to start mushroom cultivation on his family land there.

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Mushroom entrepreneurship

He took a bank loan and invested his savings to set up one room of 25 ft 75 ft using metal pillars and PUF panels. These panels have three layers of galvanized steel sheets. They are antioxidant, antimicrobial and ideal for setting up a cold storage mushroom unit. 

“This room can accommodate 5,000 bags of mushrooms that yield 10,000 kg mushrooms every two to two-and-a-half months. I installed air conditioners to maintain the right temperature for growth,” he says.

Mushrooms can be cultivated in two ways – seasonally or throughout the year in cold chambers. Cold chambers like the ones set up by Shashi give yield around the year due to controlled temperature and humidity.

He also started a composting unit alongside. Compost is the base for the growth of mushrooms and is prepared using wheat straw, chicken manure and gypsum. “To begin with, I ordered one tonne (1,000 kg) of mushroom spawn (seeds) from Delhi where I knew some suppliers,” he says.

Shashi procured the spawns at Rs150 per kg including the cost of transportation and packaging in a gel pack placed in a thermocol box to maintain the optimum temperature. 

Typically, one kg of mushroom seeds can be used in ten compost bags. So each mushroom bag contains around 100gm of spawns or seeds and 10 kg of compost. Each bag produces 2 kg of mushrooms after two to 2.5 months.

Shashi soon began selling mushrooms in various cities of Bihar. The demand was good and by December 2022, he started his spawn production unit and stopped procuring them from Delhi. “The quality of mushrooms is much superior when we produce the spawns in-house,” says Shashi, who sells them under the Nanda’s Gold Button Mushroom brand named after his mother.

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Robust revenues and expansion

He has expanded from one room to 20 rooms in just four years. “Some rooms can accommodate 4,000 bags of mushroom while others can accommodate 3,000. 

Daily, we harvest around 1.7 tonnes to 1.8 tonnes (1700 to 1800 kg) of mushrooms while the monthly production is around 50 tonnes (50,000 kg). 

The rate reaches Rs 200 per kg during summer and declines to Rs80 per kg during winter due to a supply glut. “On average, the rate works out to Rs120 per kg of button mushroom,” he says.

At this rate, the daily income works out to Rs 2 lakh while the monthly is Rs 60 lakh. After excluding expenses for air conditioning, workers and other costs, the monthly profit is around Rs 10 lakh, he says.

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The fresh mushrooms are sold in Bihar, the North East, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. 

“About 500 kg is sent to Nepal daily and a similar quantity is sent to the North East. Traders in Siliguri take it to Bhutan and Bangladesh. The rest is sent to local markets in Bihar,” he says.

Shashi receives orders early in the morning between 7 and 8 and the mushrooms are dispatched the same evening. “We receive the payment on the next day,” he says.

Mushroom processing augments income

Shashi has also put up a mushroom canning plant to avoid wastage of the unsold produce. 

“This unit can process 500 kg of mushroom per hour. Whatever is unsold is canned and sold when demand increases like during the wedding season. I sell canned mushrooms at Rs 100 per kg,” says Shashi. 

“Over 95 percent of the mushroom is sold fresh. The food processing plant acts as an insurance cover for us. If the mushroom is unsold due to any transport issues or other factors beyond our control, they are processed,” he says.

Mushroom processing makes Nanda Mushroom Farm an end-to-end unit where everything is done in-house – from preparing compost to making spawns and selling and canning the mushrooms.

Rural women empowerment

Shashi’s business is also creating social impact. Around 100 rural women are involved in harvesting, packaging and other operations at the farm, earning around Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per month depending on the hours spent at work. This financial empowerment is not easy in Bihar’s patriarchal society where women are mostly confined to homes.

“We provide our workers with a home pickup and drop facility to ensure their safety. I have also trained many women in mushroom farming and some have started their small units at home,” he says.

Shashi believes mushroom cultivation is a good way to supplement family income. “Many college students work here part-time and I tell them that if they want to earn from home before or after marriage, they must learn mushroom farming. And many of them are doing that already,” he says.

Shashi’s son has recently started selling canned mushrooms online. The next on their radar are exports. “I have the license but have not yet forayed overseas. That could be the next leg of our journey,” he says.

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

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