Microgreens Engineer and Mushroom Millionaire

There is almost always a time lag between our dreams and their realisation. The key is to nurture them continuously until they bear fruit. When we tend to dreams with patience and effort, they slowly gain strength and find their moment to become real.

Two of our stories this week are about nurturing and the realisation of long-standing dreams. One is from Madhya Pradesh, and the other is from Bihar.

Since childhood, Ajay Kumar Yadav dreamt of running a business. Belonging to a dairy farming family in Sarna, Bihar, he would spend his holidays taking cattle for grazing.

While he completed his MA in political science, Ajay’s only dream was to become an entrepreneur. By the time he got a chance to make it a reality, he was 40. He read an article about button mushroom farming, contacted the scientist who had written it and began a new journey in 2019. Today, Ajay clocks a monthly turnover of Rs 25 lakh by growing button mushrooms in a 600 sq ft unit in his village in Sarna.

“Dreams shouldn’t be allowed to die,” he told me. Ajay also provides a free two-month training on his farm. He arranges for food and lodging for students and farmers. They just have to dirty their hands making compost, filling in bags and waiting for mushroom pinheads to appear. They can harvest the crop and return to start their own mushroom businesses.

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My colleague Riya wrote about friends Tikamchand Jogchand and Amit Kumawat, who studied together in school with only one dream – to start a business. Their teachers suggested that agriculture offered immense scope for entrepreneurship, and while they both got jobs after graduation, the duo continued to water their dream.

While working in 9-to-5 jobs, they borrowed a small piece of land from Amit’s father and prepared six beds of vermicompost. The product was good, but they realised that marketing to home gardeners meant low volumes. They shifted the focus to farmers, quit their jobs and now earn Rs 70 lakh a year from the sale of vermicompost. Their unit is among the biggest in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, and they also train people in organic farming.

My colleague Anu spoke to Dr Madhu Salumuri, an academician and an engineer who quit his job after a brain stroke. He researched income-earning opportunities indoors and zeroed in on growing microgreens, which are extremely rich in nutrients and antioxidants.

Madhu not only built a business but also created a market for his product by putting up stalls in gated communities. He started in March 2025 and now earns Rs 2 lakh monthly from a 100 sq ft microgreens farm on his balcony in Hyderabad. If microgreens interest you, then do read this piece. It is a low-investment, high-return business if you get the marketing right.

Happy Reading!

Warmly,

Rashmi

Bihar farmer earns Rs 25 lakh a month from 6,000 sq ft mushroom unit, trains others for free

How two friends built a Rs 70 lakh turnover vermicompost business on just 1.5 acres

Hyderabad engineer turns 100 sq ft balcony into microgreens farm, earns Rs 2 lakh a month