Parked proper exterior the celebrated BJB Faculty in Odisha, a younger man was promoting mushrooms in small baskets on the road. This invited resentment from a couple of college students and the professors.
The person was Santosh Mishra, an alumnus of the identical school.
Having graduated in rural improvement in 1988, he needed to pursue a masters. However with out cash for additional research, he turned to cultivating mushrooms. That day, he was questioned about his skills.
“On the school, I used to be identified for my tutorial excellence, singing, and sports activities. When folks noticed me promoting mushrooms on the road, they objected and requested what I used to be doing. That day, folks mocked me however I made a decision that someday, they’d recognise me for this work and I’d make the state proud with it,” Santosh, now 56, tells The Higher India.
As we speak, Santosh is a proud mushroom farmer who has gained a number of accolades for his work like receiving a state award in 2005, a national-level award from the Indian Council for Agricultural Analysis (ICAR) in 2011, the World Agriculture Award on the Gujarat Summit in 2013, and the Odisha Citizen Award in 2019.
First harvest: Three items of mushrooms
Raised together with 4 siblings by a major faculty trainer, Santosh needed to give up his goals of upper training resulting from monetary constraints. For a short interval, he labored as a supervisor the place he says he was pressured to carry tea for his juniors and sweep the flooring.
An upset Santosh remembered a scientist who visited his village and showcased the worthwhile cultivation of mushrooms. So, he determined to take up mushroom cultivation thereafter.
In 1989, Santosh attended a mushroom farming coaching programme on the Odisha College of Agriculture & Expertise (OUAT) in Bhubaneswar. With Rs 36 in his pocket, he purchased 4 bottles of mushroom spawn and started his entrepreneurial journey. “Over financial funding, my key funding was psychological braveness,” says the Dandamukundapur resident of Puri district.
Sadly, he might solely get three items of mushrooms in distinction to the promised 4 kg produce. “I used to be disheartened however I targeted on understanding the error. I understood that as I didn’t sterilise both the soil or my fingers earlier than making ready the mushroom mattress, I acquired a really poor yield. Sterilisation contains the primary element of mushroom cultivation. With trial and error, now I stand up to 7 kgs from one mattress,” he provides.
As we speak, Santosh has arrange a spawn production-cum-training centre in his village. Day by day, he is ready to produce 2,000 bottles of spawn. His produce just isn’t solely bought throughout Odisha but in addition in West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Assam, and Puducherry. With this, he earns at the least Rs 10 lakh yearly.
Santosh shares that he’s organising a Rs 2 crore processing plant to course of mushrooms into value-added merchandise like pickles, biscuits, papad, soup powder, and even noodles!
Cultivating unusual & vibrant mushrooms
In contrast to the frequent button number of mushroom, Santosh cultivates spawns of two varieties: oyster mushroom and paddy straw mushroom.
Explaining the benefit over button selection, he says, “In comparison with button mushrooms, we develop paddy selection because it prices us Rs 100 to domesticate 1 kg of paddy selection. Whereas there are further bills in button mushrooms that require central air con, humidifiers, and a big house.”
“Apart from this, now we have beneficial weather conditions to domesticate paddy selection. This selection requires a temperature of 23-30 levels and 90 p.c humidity. We instantly develop it within the open underneath coconut bushes in contrast to button mushrooms that require shade. Additionally, it takes solely 15 days to develop,” he provides.
Curiously, Santosh grows mushrooms in a variety of colors, not simply white!
“In 2000, I collected pink, blue, white, and gray colored spawns from a analysis institute in Solan. These are additionally edible and are priced on the identical charge. We get lots of guests to tour inside our vibrant mushroom baagh (backyard),” he says with pleasure.
Preventing the annual disasters
Earlier than reaping income, Santosh has borne quite a few hardships, one among them being pure calamities. “It’s not unknown that yearly, Odisha is hit by cyclones. This brings us an enormous monetary value. The 1999 tremendous cyclone had turned my mushroom manufacturing centre into particles. By 2019, we have been in a position to handle a month-to-month revenue of Rs 30,000. However the Fani cyclone (thought-about the worst tropical cyclone publish the 1999 tremendous cyclone) destroyed my centre. I’ve witnessed eight cyclones devastate all my exhausting work. After each cyclone, now we have to kick off the work once more from scratch. I needed to even mortgage my spouse’s jewelry to restart work,” he provides.
From the preliminary centre constructed utilizing coconut leaves, a tin shed, and a thatched roof, Santosh has now established a 3,000 sq ft concrete cyclone-resistant construction comprising a coaching corridor, incubation chamber, and by-product processing unit.
In the meantime, Santosh says, he has additionally skilled about 10,000 ladies from low socio-economic backgrounds underneath the Odisha authorities’s Mission Shakti totally free. Apart from ladies, a lot of working professionals and school college students from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh attain out to him for coaching.
Speaking in regards to the impression of his work, Santosh says, “There has not been a single day in my life that I didn’t dedicate myself to the service of others and make my state proud with my work. At the very least within the final moments of my life, I shall be extraordinarily gratified to know that.”
Edited by Padmashree Pande. All images: Santosh Mishra