Maharashtra professor turns mushroom entrepreneur; clocks Rs4 lakh monthly turnover

In 2018, Trupti Bhushan Dhakate, a gold medalist in botany from Nagpur University, would spend her mornings and evenings in vegetable markets of Pune, requesting the locals to sample her oyster mushroom curry. She had experimented with oyster mushroom farming, resulting in 20kg production. However, Trupti found marketing a big challenge given the low awareness and acceptability of mushrooms.

“Since I found it difficult to sell the first batch of mushrooms, I decided to work towards awareness generation. I would visit the vegetable markets in Baner, Kothrud and other areas and ask people to taste the oyster mushroom curry. Soon they began liking it. I sold the oyster mushrooms at Rs80 for 200 gm,” says Trupti, who holds an MSc in Biotechnology and Botany.

Today, Trupti’s zero-waste enterprise Quality Mushroom has a monthly turnover of Rs 4 lakh and she has trained hundreds of people in mushroom farming.

Also Read: From Rs 250 investment to Rs 50 lakh turnover, how this Kerala woman scripted an oyster mushroom success story

Before getting married, Trupti worked as a professor at the J B College of Science at Wardha in Maharashtra and the Dr D Y Patil Biotechnology & Bioinformatics Institute. 

Marriage and mushrooms

“After marriage, I moved to Sambhaji Nagar where I worked with AgriGen Biotech between 2014 and 2016. There, I got a first-hand experience in research and cultivation of oyster and milky mushroom varieties,” she says. 

In 2016, her husband was transferred and the couple settled in Pune. 

“I cleared the UGC-NET exam (for professors and researchers). However, by then, I had become too passionate about oyster mushroom cultivation and decided to be an entrepreneur,” says Trupti.

Her husband encouraged her and in 2018, she took a 2,000 sq ft of land on lease in a commercial area in Dhayari in suburban Pune. “It was a concrete structure where I made an incubation room, sterilization area, mushroom growing room, and put up the necessary equipment with a total investment of around Rs3.5 lakh,” she points out.

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Trupti procured mushroom spawns (seeds) from an agriculture university and prepared started with 20 beds. “They resulted in 10 kg of production after 22 days followed by another 7 kg after eight days and the third and final flush after 15 days. The total output was 20 kg in three harvests in 45 days,” she says. 

On average, if prepared well, each bed gives one kg of oyster mushroom in three batches spread over 45 days.

While Trupti was happy with the outcome, the biggest challenge was marketing which she conquered with her curry samples. “Then I became active on social media to promote mushrooms. That led to home delivery orders and the business began to grow under the Quality Mushroom brand,” she says.

Corona boost and expansion

People also started approaching her for commercial training and guest lectures in colleges. “In March 2020, Coronavirus hit but it gave a new direction to my business,” Trupti says.

One, she started participating in many webinars on the subject, increasing the popularity of the mushroom brand. “Two, since the sales of fresh produce were down, I started making value-added products like mushroom papads, bread, khakhras, biscuits, cookies etc.  I started home delivery of these products and it became a big business during COVID-19,” she adds.

In 2020-end, Trupti took 10,000 sq ft of land on lease in Umbare village on the Pune-Satara road and also started vermicomposting using the spent mushroom beds, resulting in a zero-waste enterprise. 

About 4,000 sq ft in the new facility is used for mushroom farming on 100 beds while 2,000 sq ft is for preparing vermicompost. The rest of the area houses an office, seminar hall and allied infrastructure. 

Also Read: This MBA mushroom farmer earns Rs5 lakh a month from just a 1400 sq ft unit

Oyster mushroom grows well at moderate temperatures ranging from 20 to 30 degrees Celsius and humidity of 55 to 70 percent. She continues to procure spawns from agriculture universities. 

“We cultivate oyster mushrooms throughout the year and don’t need air conditioning. Only in summer, AC is required in the incubation room,” says Trupti.

She also cultivates milky mushrooms from February to August as it requires a higher temperature of 30 to 35 degrees Celsius.

“Our daily mushroom output is 50kg and it retails for Rs400 per kg while the wholesale rate is lower. Given Pune’s weather, we can grow oyster mushrooms throughout the year,” she says.

Quality Mushroom’s value-added products like cookies, khakhras, papad and biscuits are available in retail stores and for bulk purchase.

Trupti also uses the waste mushroom beds after harvest. “Most growers discard the leftover beds, called mushroom spent beds, but we make vermicompost. We add cow dung slurry and do layering and add earthworms to prepare vermicompost,” she says.

“A spent bed of 12 ft will yield one tonne of waste and 400 kg of vermicompost,” she says.

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

Also Read: How this Bihar entrepreneur earns Rs2 lakh daily from mushroom farming

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