Abdul Momin, 23, is an undergraduate from a remote village. To support his hard-pressed family and to do something of his own, he chose mushroom farming. Rather than chasing a job, he found success within a year, though it took tireless work. He now earns about Tk 40,000 a month from selling mushrooms.

The young entrepreneur lives in Shalikha village in Sonatala upazila of Bogura. He is the elder of two sons of farmer Abdul Latif Bepari, and a first-year honours student in the Bengali department at Sonatala Government Nazir Akhtar College. "Rather than waiting to finish my studies and get a job, I tried to do something myself," Abdul Momin said. "At first I weighed various ideas but could not settle on any of them. Then I decided to grow mushrooms."

Momin took a four-day training course at the Magura Mushroom Centre and then visited about 22 mushroom centres around the country before going to Savar. There he bought mushroom-growing equipment with Tk 10,000 saved from private tutoring and Tk 20,000 from his family, and returned to the village.

His family did not back the venture at first but later came round. With his maternal uncle Atoar Hossain, he built a house for growing mushrooms by scientific methods under the family bamboo grove. Including making mushroom spawn, he has spent about Tk 3 lakh. He hopes to sell mushrooms worth about Tk 2 lakh this season alone.

"A polybag is filled with wood or rice sawdust, wheat bran, rice straw, water, PP, a cap, cotton and mushroom culture," Abdul Momin told Jagonews24. "Within 20 to 30 days of transferring the seed it is fully run. The packet is then cut and kept for five to ten days, and fruiting begins in that time. One spawn gives four harvests within three months. The bags need not be thrown away; they can be used on the land as organic fertiliser."

Several local women work at the Shalikha Agro and Mushroom Centre in their spare time, and they too have become self-reliant. The centre currently produces reishi and oyster mushrooms. Momin harvests about 12 to 15 kg a day and sells it at Tk 220 to 250 a kg in Rajshahi and other parts of the country.

Sonatala upazila agriculture officer Sohrab Hossain said: "Momin came to the office one day, told us about his venture and asked for help. We welcome such initiatives by young people, so we went to see the mushroom centre. The upazila agriculture office keeps track of him and is providing various kinds of support."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.