With Rs150 investment, how this housewife built a mushroom business earning Rs3 lakh per month

When Rama Kumari Pandey was living in Pune with her husband, who worked in the IT sector, she regularly used mushrooms in her kitchen. She was fond of cooking, and mushrooms were among her favourite items. 

However, during the COVID lockdown, the couple returned to their hometown Muzaffarpur in Bihar. “It is very easy to find mushrooms in cities but not in small towns. Since I could not find them in Muzaffarpur, I started researching on the internet about their cultivation,” Rama tells 30Stades.

“I ordered 1kg of oyster mushroom spawns (seeds) online for Rs120 in August 2021. It was the rainy season and I prepared the medium using wheat straw available on our farm, spending around Rs150 in all,” she says. 

She prepared five bags of mushrooms using 1kg of spawns and put them in a small room in her house. The results were excellent, and Rama harvested 12 kg of mushrooms with a Rs150 investment. 

“We shared them with friends, prepared some at home and dried the rest,” Rama says. Her father-in-law Shri Lalan Trivedi, a farmer and retired teacher, encouraged her to learn more and expand mushroom cultivation. 

From housewife to entrepreneur

Enthused by the results, Rama decided to learn about button mushrooms, which can grow in huts or rooms during winter and in air-conditioned units throughout the year. “Button mushroom farming requires training in preparation of compost, monitoring the crop, etc. So I enrolled with Mrs Manorama Singh, who is a mushroom grower in Bihar,” the mushroom entrepreneur says.

After that training, Rama purchased 20 kg of mushroom spawns (seeds) from Manorama at Rs110 per kg and prepared the compost at her home. Compost, the base for mushroom growth, is made using wheat straw, chicken manure and gypsum.

“Wheat straw is cut and soaked in water for some days. Other inputs are then added to make mushroom compost. To this, mushroom spawns or seeds are added,” she explains.

“I made about 100 bags of button mushroom using 20 kg seeds and harvested 2kg per bag (around 200 kg production),” she says. 

With the help of her husband, she sold the harvest in her village and the Muzaffarpur mandi at Rs200 per kg, earning Rs 40,000 from an investment of less than Rs 4,000 (including seeds and compost).

Also Read: How this Haryana professor clocks Rs12 lakh monthly turnover from mushroom farming

From growing mushrooms to making spawns

Rama continued to buy seeds from Manorama for two seasons. “But the place was around 70 km from my house. So in 2023, I decided to set up my spawn lab because Muzaffarpur did not have any such facility,” Rama says.

“I took training in making spawns from PUSA, Samastipur and started my lab in a small room of 10ft x 12 ft,” she says.

“With that, I knew I had found my direction. There has been no looking back since then,” says Rama. 

Today, she earns from the sale of three types of mushrooms – button, oyster and milky white mushrooms -- and their spawns to farmers across north India. 

Rama cultivates mushrooms throughout the year without using expensive air conditioners in a 10ft x 12ft room. Oyster mushrooms are planted in February-early March and give harvest till April-end, surviving naturally in temperatures below 30 degrees Celsius. The yield from the setup is 250 kg per season.

Also Read: How this Odisha man became a mushroom millionaire with Rs 36 investment

Rama starts planting milky mushrooms in April end as it requires temperatures above 30 degree Celsius. The output per season is 250 kg. “The harvesting starts in May-end and lasts till September. Whatever is unsold is converted into pickles, papads etc. and sold locally,” she explains.

In October, she starts compost preparation for button mushrooms. Their harvesting starts in November and continues till February. “I put up around 250 bags and harvest 500 kg per season,” Rama says.

For mushroom spawns, she first prepares the tissue culture, then the mother culture and finally, the commercial culture. “Customers have to place orders in advance. Most of our buyers are large-scale mushroom farmers growing the crop in air-conditioned units,” she says.

Also Read: Millet Engineer and Mushroom Entrepreneur

Rama earns around Rs3 lakh monthly from the sale of spawns and mushrooms.

“I also train people in mushroom cultivation. Typically, when a group of ten people wants to learn, I visit their village and train them. I also give them mushroom kits free of cost to encourage entrepreneurship, especially among women,” the woman entrepreneur says.

Right now, Rama uses the compost medium after harvest on the family farm where her father-in-law has planted mangoes and other fruits. “We are now working on a farmyard from where we can consolidate and sell compost to farmers,” she adds.

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

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