Gumla village to grow button mushrooms soon
GUMLA: Happamuni village in Gumla will soon become the biggest centre for growing the costly button mushroom in Jharkhand. Two young software engineers, Nitish Singh and Ritu Pathak, have started executing the ambitious project in the ancient Happamuni village in Ghaghra block - some 32km off the district town of Gumla.
Ritu belongs to the village and had studied together with Nitish at the BIT Mesra extension centre at Jaipur. The couple, however, did not pursue a professional career but chose farming as Ritu's family owns acres of agricultural land in the village. After being successful in babycorn farming, the two are out to grow button mushrooms.
"With the rise in demand of button mushrooms in local markets, we have decided to grow it here too. We have prepared 10 tonnes of heavy compost for spawning of rich mushrooms that will be grown in tin structure," said Nitish.
Seeds, which are also called spawn as is known in pisciculture, are being supplied by an agro-scientist to Happamuni centre.
With 10 tonnes of compost an yield of at least two tonnes is expected, he added. There are three kinds of mushroom - traditional wild usually collected by village women, oyster and rich variety of button mushroom which is grown through a complicated process of heavy composting and its cultivation is also expensive.
Button mushroom is sold for Rs 300 to Rs 350 per kg in the market while price of oyster mushroom ranges from Rs 125 to Rs 150 per kg, added Nitish.
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