Mumbai makes room for mushroom cultivation

At a lecture-cum-demonstration organised by Belgaum-based Patil Exports at Dadar recently, almost 80 people turned up to gather tips on cultivating the fungus. And it was not just their tastebuds that drew them here but the lucrative returns the business generates.

Oyster mushrooms that can be grown in Mumbai homes button mushrooms need a colder climate can fetch up to Rs 300 per kg when sold dried in the market. Cultivation of mushrooms does not require any permission from the government and neither is the income generated from it taxable. The minimum requirement is a 10215;10 room and temperature maintained between 25 to 30 degrees centigrade.

There are two ways to prepare the bed for the mushrooms 8212; chemical or boiling process. In the first method, 14 kgs of straw, 125 litres of water, 50 ml formelyn and 7 gms Bavistin pesticides are mixed for 18 hours in a barrel. In the boiling process, the straw is dipped for eight hours in cold water and then in boiling water for one hour.

The processed straw is then put into a 18 inch x 6 feet polythene bag in several 4-inch-thick layers and the seeds scattered between each layer. A bag of this size can accommodate up to 1 kg seeds. The floor has to be covered with sand and windows with muslin cloth. The room should be sprinkled with water at least thrice a day to keep it moist and maintain a low temperature. The bag is opened on the 21st day and sprinkled with water till the 34th day when the mushrooms come into full bloom. One bag can yield almost 10 kg of mushrooms which reduce to one-tenth their weight when dried.

Said A Srinivas of Patil Exports, 8220;A 10215;10 room can yield up to 20 kgs of dried mushrooms at an investment of nearly Rs 100 per bag on the raw material. A 2,000 sq feet flat can get a profit of almost Rs 15,000 per month. Our clients can sell them to us and for large outputs we offer to pick it up from their doorsteps.8221;

Sadhana Talwar, a businesswoman who has been trying her hand at mushroom cultivation for the last two months, said: 8220;Uptill now I grew them in small bags just to get a hang of the process and used them at home.8221; At present, she has prepared almost 30 large bags in an empty shed behind her office at Thane8217;s Wagle Estate for commercial use. 8220;This time I plan to sell it off. It takes only one day in the sun to dry the output and during monsoons even a bulb can be used for the purpose.8221;

Srinivas added: 8220;We have instructed almost 1,200 clients in Mumbai in the last few years but the idea is taking time to catch up mainly due to lack of space in the city. Most people who come to us are those who have empty flats and do not want to give them out on rent or those with a spare room or balcony. Some of them with hardly any room want to learn how to cultivate the spawn seeds and sell them.8221; His firm collects the mushrooms from its clients and then sends them to Coimbatore for quality segregation, from where they head towards wafer, soup and pickle manufacturers. The rest are exported to other countries where there is a huge market for mushrooms.