How India could become a ‘mushroom superpower’

Three years ago, Fulrida Ekka, who lives near Siliguri in West Bengal, knew she needed to find a new source of income.

Her husband had died and her seasonal work picking tea leaves just wasn’t enough to support her family.

Looking for ideas to earn money, she came across mushroom farming. With the help of the Indian rural development organization Live Life Happily, she was able to get started.

Now she sells two or three bags of her mushroom harvest every day, which brings her about $92 (£73) a month.

The white flower mushrooms are grown in large sacks hanging from the ceiling. Normally Ms. Ekka has 10 in her house, producing about 48 bags of mushrooms a month.

“It’s a happy sight to see it growing because now I know that me and my family are not going to sleep on an empty stomach,” she says.

Mushroom cultivation has made a big difference in Ms Ekka’s life, but some think the harvest should make a bigger contribution to India’s agricultural sector.

“India has all the elements needed to become a superpower in mushroom production,” says Rouf Hamza Boda, who has spent 20 years identifying 100 species of mushrooms in Jammu and Kashmir.

“India has a huge variety of wild mushrooms. Plenty of composting material, cheap labor and [it is] supported by different climatic conditions,” he explains.

Despite these favorable conditions, India accounts for only 2% of world mushroom production, with China providing the lion’s share at 75%.

According to Mr Boda, part of the problem is the national appetite – that many people in India do not eat mushrooms because they find them “strange and deadly”.

“Not much research has been done to identify wild mushrooms in relation to their edibility,” he says.

“Lack of awareness of how useful mushrooms are and the cheapness of growing mushrooms are hurdles in popularizing consumption,” he says.

So there is plenty of room for entrepreneurs willing to take a risk.

Four years ago, Leena Thomas and her son Jithu experimented with growing mushrooms in Jithu’s bedroom.

Jithu said he really only started the project out of “curiosity” after seeing mushrooms easily grown in a plastic bottle on the internet.

Initial success spurred him to study and take courses in mushroom cultivation, and his hobby quickly grew into a thriving business.

Now, under the company name Leena’s Mushroom, the mother and son entrepreneurs from Kerala have 2,000 mushroom beds producing 100 kg of products per day.

“Mushroom cultivation has many advantages, including its short growing season,” he explains.

“But that doesn’t mean it’s an easy task. The harvest is fragile and extremely delicate. A tiny change in temperature or the appearance of pests can completely ruin the crop.”

The company’s greenhouses use fans to pull outside air over damp pads to keep the temperature and humidity at optimal levels. The carbon dioxide content is also monitored.

But it’s worth it. He says good prices make mushrooms “lucrative”.

“Freshly harvested mushrooms are sold to retailers the same day without intermediaries,” says Jithu.

Parimal Ramesh Udgave has taken a different path. He studied microbiology to acquire a deep knowledge of mushroom cultivation.

Founded in 2019, his company Biobritte not only grows mushrooms, but also dries the harvest to make mushroom powders and dietary supplements.

Despite his success, he says growing mushrooms isn’t easy.

“People see mushrooms as a quick, money-making business, but it also needs to be combined with technical skills,” he says.

According to Mr Udgave, many start-up mushroom companies fail.

While Anirban Nandy, a rural development researcher from IIT-Kharagpur, and his wife Poulami Chaki Nandy believe there is plenty of room for small players in the mushroom market.

Her NGO Live Life Happily has shown more than 8,000 women in West Bengal, including Fulrida Ekka, how to grow their own mushrooms for profit.

“These women are poor, without land or adequate means of subsistence,” says Mr. Nandy.

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Many women in rural areas are in financial distress after being widowed and cannot earn enough money picking tea.

“Learning to grow mushrooms is a doable and manageable task. The women can even grow in a corner of their home as a part-time job or hobby without needing farmland,” he says.

And according to Nandys, there’s a lot of customer demand. “Especially in cosmopolitan areas like Darjeeling and thus for a quick income,” explains Mr. Nandy.

That extra income can really be life-changing.

“These women have gained bargaining power in their home and have become decision makers. In one case, a woman refused to marry her daughter at an early age because she could fund her education by growing mushrooms,” says Ms. Nandy.