Pawan Kumar lives in Hasanpur village near Delhi and cultivates mushrooms. Before mushroom farming, he used to grow wheat and mustard crops in his fields, but he had to face difficulties due to salty water during the Kharif season. Due to this, his yield was low. Unhappy with the low income, he talked to the scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Delhi about this. Agricultural scientists advised him to do high-tech mushroom production.
Experts told that mushroom farming would improve his old farming and also increase the income. Pawan liked this. He felt that growing mushrooms could be a good business for him, so he started mushroom farming.
Mushroom Unit Set Up in the field
In the year 2016, Pawan Kumar took professional training of high-tech mushroom production related to mushroom cultivation from Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Delhi. For this, he set up a mushroom unit in his farm. Along with this, he also kept taking advice from the scientists of the center. The experts here used to visit his farm from time to time and kept telling about the improvements. In 2016-17, thanks to the guidance of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pawan Kumar set up a button mushroom unit of 700 square feet. He was given technical assistance to control temperature and humidity, prepare compost, sow seeds, casing and break mushrooms, etc.
Annual 54 thousand kilograms of mushroom production (Market Value of Mushroom Production)
To further improve his success, Pawan Kumar also contacted the Mushroom Research Center in Solan, Himachal Pradesh. On their advice, he increased the size of his mushroom unit to 5000 square feet in 2022-23. In this, he started preparing the casing i.e. compost and selling that compost to others. Initially, he used to sell mushrooms in the local market. Later, he also started selling it in restaurants and malls of Delhi-NCR. Now he sells mushrooms in restaurants and malls of Nazafgarh and Delhi. Here he started getting good prices even in off-season. He also sold mushrooms on the demand of customers, for which he also created a booking portal.
Generally, the price of mushrooms ranges from Rs 100 to Rs 120 per kg. On the other hand, in off-season, this price increases to Rs 160 to Rs 180 per kg. In the year 2022-2023, Pawan Kumar produced about 54,000 kg of mushrooms from his Mushroom Unit. This gave him a net income of Rs 21 lakh 60 thousand annually.
Cost & Earning In Mushroom Production
Details of cost, gross returns and earnings in Pawan Kumar’s mushroom production unit (2016-2017 to 2022-2023)
| Year Unit Size (sq./ft.) | Compost Requirement (in tons) | Mushroom Yield (in kg) | Mushroom Production Cost (Rs.) | Gross Return (Rs.) | Income from Mushrooms (Rs.) | |
| 2016-17 | 900 | 30 | 4200 | 3,52,800 | 5,04,000 | 1,51,200 |
| 2017-18 | 1000 | 35 | 6300 | 5,29,200 | 7,56,000 | 2,26,800 |
| 2018-19 | 2900 | 110 | 21400 | 17,97,600 | 25,68,000 | 7,70,400 |
| 2019-20 | 2900 | 110 | 22060 | 18,53,040 | 26,47,200 | 7,94,160 |
| 2020-21 | 3500 | 175 | 35750 | 30,03,000 | 42,90,000 | 12,87,000 |
| 2021-22 | 3500 | 177 | 36090 | 30,20,000 | 43,50,000 | 13,30,000 |
| 2022-23 | 5000 | 300 | 54000 | 45,90,000 | 67,50,000 | 21,60,000 |
Provides Information About Hi-Tech Mushroom Production
Seeing this progress of Pawan Kumar, other mushroom producers across the country got encouraged. He provides the best quality mushrooms in the Delhi-NCT region and has emerged as a successful farmer entrepreneur. He also keeps motivating other farmers to adopt new techniques in mushroom production. Many people interested in growing mushrooms keep visiting him and take advice from him. They also get information about the process of starting mushroom production.
Helped In Setting Up Mushroom Farm
Due to mushroom cultivation, Pawan has become famous not only in his village but also in the surrounding states like Delhi, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Rajasthan. He has helped 21 new businesses set up mushroom farms and has also provided employment to many rural youth. New youth interested in growing mushrooms often visit his farm so that they too can become successful entrepreneurs like him. Pawan gives them information about mushroom farming and encourages them.
Key Points About Mushroom Farming
You can also grow mushrooms like Pawan Kumar ji. It does not require a lot of resources. Less space and resources are enough to grow mushrooms. You can even grow it on less fertile land. Sunlight is also not required for this, because mushrooms get their own food from organic matter. You can easily grow mushrooms even in a small space in a closed room. So if you have a little space, you can grow mushrooms without any problem.
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