Tag: Mushroom Farming

Brijesh Kumar

Read full story

Brijesh Kumar: Cultivating Innovation in the Heartland of Agriculture

In the fertile lands of Dangarh, Bulandshahar, Uttar Pradesh, where agriculture is a way of life, the story of Mr. Brijesh Kumar unfolds—a tale of unwavering dedication, passion, and innovation that has transformed him into a beacon of success in the world of farming. It is said that when you follow your passion with true dedication, the power of the mind leads you down a path of innovation and accomplishment, and Brijesh Kumar’s journey is a testament to this belief.

With about 8 acres of his own land and additional leased land at his disposal, Mr. Brijesh Kumar has been cultivating crops round the year since 2010. His journey into farming started early in life, as he completed his Senior Secondary school and dived headfirst into the field of agriculture. Over the years, he has honed his skills and expertise in farming through an integrated farming system approach.

Brijesh Kumar’s specialty lies in a diverse array of crops, including horticulture crops like potatoes, cauliflower, and brinjal. He also ventures into animal husbandry, raising 4 Sahiwal cows and 4 buffaloes. His focus on potato seed production, particularly varieties like Jignasa 1, Jignasa 3 Neelkanth, Raisoni, spans approximately 20 acres, while rice varieties 1692 and 1502 find a home on about 5 acres of his land. Brijesh Kumar actively engages in direct sales of these seeds, contributing to his substantial income. Additionally, he cultivates seasonal mushrooms, further diversifying his agricultural portfolio.

What sets Brijesh Kumar apart is his ability to maximize profits through multiple avenues within agriculture. His success story encompasses a wide spectrum, ranging from field crops like paddy, maize, and wheat to horticultural delights like potatoes, cauliflower, and brinjal. His livestock, including cows and buffaloes, also contribute to his thriving enterprise. Moreover, poultry farming adds to his diverse income streams.

In his pursuit of knowledge and innovation, Brijesh Kumar has harnessed the power of social media. He actively uses platforms such as YouTube and Facebook to connect with fellow farmers and stay updated on the latest advancements in farming techniques. His thirst for learning led him to seek guidance from farmers in his locality, participate in Kissan melas, and undergo training at the nearest Krishi Vigyan Kendra for poultry farming and mushroom production. YouTube, in particular, plays a pivotal role in helping him stay at the forefront of modern farming practices.

Like any farmer, Brijesh Kumar faces his share of challenges, from unpredictable weather conditions to seed availability and the issue of spoilt seeds due to pesticides. However, his commitment to sustainability is evident through his dedication to organic farming on approximately 2 acres dedicated to potatoes and rice production.

To stay at the cutting edge of farming technology, Brijesh Kumar has secured government funding for upscaling technologies and implementing high-tech production methods. A significant portion of his produce, around 25%, is sold through direct channels, further boosting his income and fostering strong community connections.

In his pursuit of excellence, Brijesh Kumar encourages farm visits from various agricultural scientists, fostering knowledge exchange and community growth. His dedication and innovative farming methods even caught the attention of DD National, where he was featured for his groundbreaking approaches to agriculture.

Brijesh Kumar’s journey has been punctuated by accolades and recognition, underscoring his contributions to the agricultural landscape. In 2022, he was honored with the prestigious IARI Fellow and Innovative Farmer Award. Various institutions and organizations have also appreciated and awarded him for his dedication and innovative approaches. Government funding further validates his efforts and commitment to sustainable farming practices.

As Brijesh Kumar continues to innovate and expand his farming horizons, his story serves as an inspiration to all those who believe that passion, dedication, and innovation can lead to remarkable success, even in the heartland of agriculture. His journey reinforces the idea that farming is not just a livelihood but a canvas for innovation and a path to economic prosperity. In the ever-evolving world of agriculture, Brijesh Kumar is a true pioneer, paving the way for a brighter and more sustainable future for farming in India.

Vivek Uniyal

Read Full Story

Retired Soldier-Turned-Farmer Aiming Big Through Mushroom Cultivation

The Soldiers and the farmers are the two strong pillars of a country. Where the soldiers protects our land on the frontier, on the other hand, the farmers grows food for us on the same land. And that is why the slogan given by Lal Bahadur Shastri – “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” (Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer) is so popular and equitable.

This is a story about a soldier turned farmer – Vivek Uniyal based in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), who after honestly serving his motherland as an army man, returned to his roots to pursue farming and nurture the land with its love and care.

Vivek Uniyal got retired from the military after serving for a long time and then he joined the service of Uttarakhand Police for two years. Along with his police duty he also started farming in his free time. As his family members were still practicing agriculture, so Vivek’s inclination towards agriculture was natural and obvious. While pursuing his farming venture, once he got a chance to meet a mushroom farmer – Deepak Upadhyaya, who is also doing organic farming. And from this meeting, Vivek came to know about the different varieties of mushroom – Oyster, Milky and Button.

“Deepak Upadhyaya helped me initially in setting up the mushroom farm. And whenever I faced any difficulty he always assisted with his advice from his past experiences.” – Vivek Uniyal

After meeting Deepak, Vivek’s interest in mushroom farming took a big turn. He talked about this with his family, and even his sister Kusum also showed interest towards it. The duo of brother and sister together decided to start mushroom farming with their family’s consent. They started farming in a room after purchasing seeds of oyster mushroom from Solan (Himachal Pradesh)

To improve his mushroom farming skills and knowledge he also took training. The venture which he started within in a small room was well appreciated by the customers in the market after buying the product and profit was good too. Seeing the yield and the payback, Vivek decided to extend the level of the mushroom farming from one room to four rooms & he also started growing Milky and Button mushrooms. Along with it he also established a composting plant for the mushroom farming, which was inaugurated by the Agriculture Minister of Uttarakhand.

Along with mushroom farming, Vivek is also focusing towards organic farming from the last two years.

“Like we care and serve our mother, in the same way we should also understand our responsibilities towards mother nature. Farmers should focus towards organic farming and leave chemical farming.” – Vivek Uniyal

Vivek visits many villages time-to- time to convince and influence other farmers towards mushroom and organic farming. Till now he has established 45 mushroom plants collaboratively with other farmers. Students from agriculture university visits him to take his advice. And he also feels very fortunate to have the opportunity to help them.

“Mushroom farming is a business which provides employment to the whole family.” – Vivek Uniyal

Future Plans
In the coming time, Vivek is planning to produce products made up of mushroom such as Pickles, Biscuits, Papads etc. and sell them in the market.

Message
“Farmers should adopt allied-agri activities along with farming to increase their income. But in the beginning, they should start it on a small level, so that the business’s profit or loss will be known in advance & there would not be any difficulty or harm in the future.”

Mota Ram Sharma

Read Full Story

A Farmer Who Treated Chronic Cancer-Like Illness With Mushrooms

All farmers do farming, but the farmer whose story we are going to share with you is different from others. Hardly any farmer would have thought about treating patients along with farming. And Mota Ram Sharma is one such farmer who became a doctor because of mushroom cultivation.

Mota Ram Sharma, famously known as Mushroom Man, used to do mushroom cultivation in his 5 Bigha land along with dairy farming almost 24 years ago. Mushroom farming was not in trend in Rajasthan at that time. He started growing oyster mushrooms in the beginning. Most of the farmers only knew about button mushrooms at that time. So, Mota Ram prepared powder out of mushrooms and started feeding the cattle, as he was unable to market the large quantity of oyster mushrooms he had grown. After feeding on this powder, incurable disease like Mastitis in cows was even cured. Mota Ram started growing oyster mushrooms on a large scale after this achievement. When agriculture authorities came to know about this, they advised him to take training. He went to Solan and Jaipur to take the training. And after acquiring all the skills and information, he started growing button and shiitake mushrooms. He started selling button mushrooms in Delhi Mandi, from which he started earning well. Presently, he is doing mushroom farming without using an air conditioner.

As the time passed, I came to know on the basis of my discovery that we can also use mushrooms to prevent many different diseases. There are many varieties of mushrooms that are nothing short of lifesaving panacea for humans. – Mota Ram Sharma

While farming mushrooms, Mota Ram also started preparing mushroom seeds and now he is farming 16 different varieties of mushrooms.

In 2010, he became the first farmer to grow Ganoderma Mushroom in India, due to which he received the Mushroom King of India Award. He uses this ganoderma mushroom variety to make cancer medicines.
“We treat heart and cancer patients with medicines prepared by us. So far we have achieved success in 90% of the cases.” – Mota Ram Sharma

Many people are surprised due to this inspiring feat of Mota Ram Sharma, who has passed only fifth class and has no college degree. During the time of his discovery, he came to know that the cause of cancer in humans is due to deficiency of Vitamin B-17 in the body and this vitamin is present in the Ganoderma mushroom. Presently, he is making different medicines from mushrooms, from which he is treating cancer patients.

Around his farm, he has planted Ashoka trees, Aloe Vera, Asparagus and Giloy plants, which he uses to make medicines.

Both the sons of Mota Ram Sharma are doctors, but now they also do mushroom farming with their father.

Mr. Sharma grows 16 different exotic varieties of mushrooms, whose names are as follows:
  • Ganoderma Mushroom
  • Reishi Mushroom
  • Pink Mushroom
  • Sajar Kaju Mushroom
  • Kabul Anjai
  • Black Ear Mushroom
  • Button Mushroom
  • Oyster Mushroom
  • Dhingri Mushroom
  • DJ Moore Mushroom
  • Citro Mushroom
  • Shiitake Mushroom
  • Sagar Kaju Sarikhi Mushroom
  • Paneer Mushroom
  • Florida Mushroom
  • Codechef Mushroom

Mota Ram Sharma has received many awards because of his efforts and discoveries made in the field of mushroom farming, which are as follows:

  • Best Mushroom Farmer Award (2010)
  • Krishi Ratna (2010)
  • Krishi Samrat (2011)
  • Mushroom King Award Of India (2018)
  • Member Of Rashtriya Mushroom Board
  • Many farmers visit Mr. Sharma’s farm for mushroom farming training
Future Plans

In the coming future, Mota Ram wants to help farmers and solve their problems with his experience and do more innovations in the field of mushroom farming.

Message
“Farmers should take advice from experts to solve their difficulties faced in the field of agriculture and should look forward to making new discoveries in every field.”

Baijulal Kumar

Read Full Story

How This Bihar Based Farmer Amazed Everyone With His Progressive Farming Skills

Earlier, farmers used to think that we should follow the same agriculture practices that have been followed by our ancestors. But today’s youngsters believes in the passion of trying & implementing something new, which is good as it could influence others farmers towards progressive farming.

This is a story about a farmer who used to do something additional along with conventional farming.

Baijulal is a Bihar based young farmer, whose father used to cultivate paddy and wheat in 3-4 acres of land and rear cattle including 2 cows and 1 buffalo for dairy farming purpose. After graduating in B.Sc. Physics, Baijulal started helping his father in the fields, as his family’s financial conditions were not good. But he always wanted to do something different, so in the free time he used to watch agriculture videos on YouTube. One day, he came to know about mushroom farming and this is how it started.

To gather more information about mushroom farming he contacted a few mushroom producers, and this is how he gained more interest and enthusiasm towards it. But when Baijulal discussed this with his family, they disagreed with him, as no one has ever done it before in their village. But Baijulal had thought that he would do something unique because of his strong will power.

“No one accepted my decision of mushroom farming. Everyone was suggesting me that I should not try something about which I have no knowledge or skill.” – Baijulal Kumar
To begin with the mushroom cultivation, he brought 5 KG spawn from PUSA University and for this he started boiling the waste stubble. Seeing Baijulal doing this, villagers started making fun of him. But he never cared about anyone and even started working harder.
“After seeing this work of mine, villagers use to call me mad and even asked me to leave it. But my decision was definite to do something different from the villagers.” – Baijulal Kumar

For farming information he took help from YouTube videos and sometimes he used to ask the experts for their advice. With the time when he harvested the mushroom, then his hard work was really appreciated by everyone. His relatives tasted the mushrooms produced by him and everybody liked it.

When Baijulal sold his produce for the first time in the market, even the customers also admired the quality of the mushrooms and gradually the demand increased. Achieving this milestone inspired Baijulal to start mushroom farming of larger extent.

To become successful, one has to do struggle and the result of this struggle is success. Similarly, after getting success due to hard work, Baijulal started his company named as  “Champaran The Mushroom Expert Pvt. Ltd. Company”.

Presently, he is farming Milky and Button mushrooms and is making good profit from it. Now Baijulal has become proficient and skilled in his work and he also provides training to the other men and women. He provides 2 Kg Spawn, PPC Bag, Formalin, Bevastin and Spray Machine to the farmers who get training from him for Mushroom Farming.

Apart from this, Baijulal also purchases fresh mushroom from the Mushroom farmers that are not sold, dries them and prepare their products such as Soup Powder, Mushroom Pickle, Mushroom Biscuit, Mushroom Peda, etc.

“The people who used to call me insane, now appreciates and inspire me to do good work.” – Baijulal Kumar
Future Plans

In the future, Baijulal wants to form a group of farmers and sell products made using mushrooms on a larger extent.

Message
“Instead of burning stubble, farmers should use it in the mushroom cultivation or animal feed. And farmers should do other agri-allied activities with conventional farming to gain more profit.”

Harjinder Kaur Randhawa

Read Full Story

How this 60-Year-Old Woman Established the Foundation of a Mushroom Farming Business in Amritsar and Her Sons made it Successful

Where people in Punjab are still stuck in the cycle of conventional farming, there are some farmers who are breaking this cycle and are bringing innovative farming trends which are helping in saving the nature’s essential resource like water.

This is a story of a family’s effort! Randhawa Family is from the holy city of Punjab- Amritsar, which is known for its amazing cuisine, culture and serene Golden Temple surrounded by Amrit Sarovar (holy water pond). This family is not only bringing revolution in mushroom farming but also encouraging other farmers toward modern and profitable farming trends.

Harjinder Kaur Randhawa is the famous mushroom lady of Amritsar. She started mushroom cultivation just as a side work or we can say it was her hobby, but who knew that Mrs. Harjinder’s hobby will be transformed into a successful business by her sons in the coming future.

So how it get started…
As being the wife of Rajinder Singh Randhawa who was serving in Punjab Police in eighties-nineties, there was no shortage in the house that would have made Mrs. Harjinder Kaur insecure to look for an alternate money earning source.

How a housewife’s interest laid the foundation for the family’s future…
But in 1989, Harjinder Kaur thought of doing something different and utilize her free time in an efficient manner, so she started mushroom cultivation in the veranda of her house. She had no training before starting mushroom cultivation, but her dedication brings the true colors to her work. Slowly she expanded her mushroom cultivation work and started making processed food items of mushroom.

When the sons became the mother’s support….
When her sons grew up and were done with their studies, then three (Manjeet, Mandeep and Harpreet) out of four sons decided of helping their mother and become helping hand in the mushroom farming business. All the three sons especially went to Directorate of Mushroom Research, Solan for training. From there they learn about growing different varieties of mushroom like button, milky, and oyster. They also attended other vocational training given by Punjab Agriculture University on Mushroom Farming. While the third son (Jagdeep Singh) was more interested towards farming other crops and later on he went to Australia and started sugarcane and banana farming.

As time passed, Harjinder Kaur’s sons keep on expanding the mushroom farming work and they also started preparing processed mushroom products like Pickles, Papad, Powder, Vadiyaan, Namkeen and Biscuit for commercial purpose. On the other hand, Mr. Rajinder Singh Randhawa also joined the mushroom farming business along with other family members after retirement.

Today Randhawa family is a successful mushroom producer and mushroom products, manufacturers. From seed preparation to marketing, the family members do everything themselves. After Harjinder Kaur, the other member who took the business more seriously and worked towards expanding is Mandeep Singh (2nd son) he especially manages all the manufacturing and marketing part. Mainly he functions through their shop (Randhawa Mushroom Farm) which is situated at Batala-Jalandhar Road.

The other two son (Manjeet Singh & Harpreet Singh) also plays a very important role in running the Randhawa Mushroom Farm, they manage the mushroom farming, harvesting and other work related to the business.

Although the sons of the family are now managing all the work, still Harjinder Kaur participates very actively and personally visit the farming and manufacturing location and guide the other people working on it. She is the main person who takes cares of the hygiene and quality of the product manufactured by them.

How Harjinder Kaur wants to see her third generation in the coming future…

“I want my third generation (grandchildren) should also be the part of our business. Some of them who are  big enough to understand what is going on, has already started showing interest in the mushroom cultivation business. We are also planning to send our grandson (SO- Manjeet Singh, currently studying in 10th) to go for higher studies in mushroom research and do Ph.D. in it.”

Setting mark in the market…
Randhawa Mushroom Farm has already marked their presence on a large scale in the market with their quality produce. Currently, 70% of the produce (fresh mushrooms and processed mushroom food items) are sold through their shop and the rest of the 30% are sent to vegetable markets of nearby big cities like Jalandhar, Amritsar, Batala, and Gurdaspur.

As they are growing three varieties of mushroom Milky, Button and oyster so the revenue is pretty good. On all the three variety the investment is less and income is between Rs 70 to 80 per kg (raw mushrooms). Button mushroom crops take 20 to 50 days to get ready for harvesting, whereas Oyster (Nov-April) and Milky (May-Oct) takes 6 months to get ready for harvesting. Due to their crops readying and harvesting time their business is never out of season.

Randhawa Family…
The whole family including daughter-in-laws are very much involved in the business and they prepare all the products themselves at home. The second son – Mandeep Singh is serving one more profession other than handling the marketing department of their family business, he is working as a reporter in Jagbani Newspaper since 2007 and covers the Amritsar district. Sometimes in his absence, Mr Rajinder Singh Randhawa takes care of the shop.

Nowadays, the government and agriculture department is encouraging farmers towards farming crop that requires less water, and mushroom is one of those crops which doesn’t need water is the huge quantity for irrigation. So by seeing their effort in the mushroom cultivation, Randhawa family has been awarded district level award two times and tehsil level awards many times in events and fairs. Recently (10th September 2017) Randhawa family efforts have also been appreciated nationwide by Directorate of Mushroom Research, Solan, where they were awarded National Award.


MESSAGE FOR FARMERS

Randhawa family believes in being together and their message is the most unique and inspirational message for farmers.

 “The family which stays together achieves success very easily. Nowadays farmer should understand the power of unity and instead of dividing their land and property among the family members they should live and work in unity. One more thing that farmer should start is self-marketing because it is the easiest way to earn confidence and earn the right price of your harvest.

 

”

Gurdeep Singh Nambardar

Read Full Story

Gurdeep Singh Script Success Story in Mushroom Cultivation

With the combined effort and support of the whole family based in Gurali village of Firozpur district (Punjab), Gurdeep Singh Nambardar has scripted his success in the field of mushroom farming. Pooling all his resources and determination, he started mushroom cultivation in 2003 and till now he has employed 60 families with his venture.

Starting from a small level and slowly expanding to a grander level, today Gurdeep Singh has earned an identity of a successful mushroom farmer and along with that, he has also built a large mushroom farm. Other than being a successful mushroom farmer he was also Sarpanch of his village for 20 years.

As per the suggestion by PAU he started this venture and in the beginning, it cost him about 20 quintals of straw. Today his farm is much bigger as compared to 2003, and now it cost him about 7 thousand quintals of straw annually.

Many farmers of his village are inspired by his initiative. For his success in mushroom farming, he was also honoured with district-level award for producing mushrooms through high-tech farming at Progressive Farmer Fair conducted in his village by Agriculture Department, Firozpur in collaboration with district administration.

Message:
“Mushroom farming is a profitable venture with low investment. Farmers should invest in mushroom farming if they want to earn well. ”