This engineer quit L&T for mushroom farming; clocks Rs70 lakh annual turnover

For Tapan Kumar Dalie, life was never easy. His father Niranjan Dalie struggled to provide for his family of six in the Karanjiari village of Odisha's Jajpur district. The family income from vegetable farming on one acre was both erratic and meagre. 

Tapan completed his mechanical engineering in 2015 and joined L&T Construction. He worked for a year in Kalinga Nagar, one of Odisha’s industrial hubs in Jajpur. He then joined the recovery wing of L&T Finance and was posted in Cuttack. 

However, COVID hit in 2020 and Tapan quit his job to be with his family. For six months, he didn’t know what to do. “I continued to research entrepreneurship opportunities online. Finally, I zeroed in on mushroom farming as it could be started with low investment and yield high profits,” Tapan tells 30Stades.

“The profit margin in paddy straw mushroom farming is 50 percent, making it a good option for entrepreneurs with limited space,” he says.

The spawn of mushroom entrepreneurship

Tapan collected Rs 15,000 from his family and friends and purchased 50 spawn bottles from Bhubaneswar-based Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) to start paddy straw mushroom farming. Each spawn (seed) bottle of 200 gm cost him Rs 15.  

“I put up 50 mushroom beds in a bamboo shed over 500 sq ft. I did not get an opportunity to market the yield of 100 kg due to the lockdown. So locals purchased them. As a result, my annual turnover was just Rs 20,000 in 2020-21,” he says. 

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

Today, Tapan’s Sai Enterprises clocks an annual turnover of over Rs 70 lakh from the sale of mushrooms and spawns (mushroom seeds).

His journey from Rs 20,000 to Rs 70 lakh is one of hard work, determination and training for knowledge upgradation.

Scaling up with training

In 2021, Tapan took training on mushroom farming and spawn production from Jajpur-based Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK). 

“Under KVK Tapan was trained in the modern way of mushroom production for three days. We also imparted a five-day training to him on spawn production. Later, with financing by Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas of Development Corporation, he received 10-day training on straw chopping, mushroom bed preparation, spawn testing and other techniques,” says Dr Sunil Kumar Mohapatra, senior scientist and head of KVK, Jajpur. 

“Our department recommended he undergo training for five days at the Bhubaneswar-based Mushroom Research Centre of OUAT. The department provided a 50 percent subsidy of Rs 1.5 lakh to Tapan for mushroom farming,” says Radheshyam Behera, Assistant Director (horticulture), Jajpur. 

Tapan invested the money in increasing the number of mushroom beds to 1,000 and buying implements for cutting straw, etc.

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

Process, production, and expansion

Paddy straw mushrooms, also known as Volvariella volvacea, are cultivated on paddy straw. In the first stage, paddy straw is prepared by soaking it in water for 24 hours, followed by the addition of spawn (mushroom seeds). The straw is then placed in bags or beds and incubated under specific conditions. 

After about 20 days, the straw is covered with hyphae. Small mushroom growth appears within a few days, and the first flush is harvested in 35 days. Subsequent harvests can be expected after 35-40 days.

“The production picked up momentum and the annual turnover reached about Rs 20 lakh in 2022. That’s when I set up Sai Enterprises,” Tapan says. 

His wife Monalisha Priyadarshini Sethy looks after the administration, while Tapan takes care of production and marketing.

In 2023, he procured a bank loan of Rs 10 lakh to start spawn production. The horticulture department provided 70 percent of the total spawn production cost as a subsidy under the National Horticulture Mission.   

Sai Enterprises now grows mushrooms on 4,000 beds spread over three guntas of land (3,267 sq ft). 

The daily yield is 50 kg of mushrooms and 2,000 kg of spawn. Our mechanized unit deals with packaging, bottling, chopping straws and stacking mushrooms and spawns, and the laboratory tests the quality and viability of the products before they are released to the market,” Tapan explains.

Also Read: Mushrooms in Huts and Saffron in a Room

“We have more than 5,000 customers in different districts of Odisha, including Cuttack, Puri, Jharsuguda and Kendrapara,” says Monalisha, the managing director of ‘Sai Enterprises’. Tapan’s brother Dipun Kumar Dalei also helps in running the unit.

The price of our mushroom varies between Rs 200 and Rs 350 per kg, while each spawn bottle of 200 gm sells at Rs 15 to Rs 20. 

“The price fluctuates in response to the vagaries of the market,” says Tapan, now among the top mushroom and spawn producers in Jajpur district. 

Training others

Tapan also trains other farmers under KVK and OUAT.  As a master trainer, his remuneration per class varies between Rs 1000 and Rs 1500, depending on the schemes and projects. 

Now, Tapan plans to procure a bank loan of over Rs 1 crore to expand to ten guntas and employ 60 people. 

“Tapan has built his production and marketing set-up from scratch and made his name in the field of mushroom and spawn production in Jajpur district. This year (2025) Jajpur district administration crowned him as the best agripreneur. Similarly, Odisha Mushroom Growers Federation also conferred the same title on him this year,” says assistant director (horticulture) Behera. 

(Niroj Ranjan Misra is a Cuttack-based freelance writer. He writes on rural and tribal life, social issues, art and culture, and sports.)

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

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