SPROUTING HOPE
ANUPAM KUMARI 24 MUSHROOM FARMER VARHARI BEHTA, BIHAR
For years, Uday Choudhary, a farmer in the Varhari Behta village of Sitamarhi district in Bihar, toiled as a clerk in a private college, hoping for a permanent job. His daughter Anupam, just a teenager at the time, finally convinced him to dump his low-paying job and take up full-time farming. In 2010, he finally quit. Anupam and her father then went to the Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Sitamarhi where they were taught the nuances of mushroom cultivation. Starting with a small area of 500 square feet and a Rs 500 investment, Anupam and her father got down to work, putting into practice what they had learnt during training. Packing balls of wheat husk and rotten hay in polythene bags, Anupam laid them in a series under her thatched roof to nourish the oyster mushroom shoots in humid conditions.
Three months later, the tiny initial investment fetched 20 times the return, of Rs 10,000. There has been no looking back since. Today, Anupam sells 50 quintals in the three-month-long mushroom season. As of now, she is primarily focused on growing oyster, button and milky white mushrooms. “The oyster mushrooms are the best, they start yielding returns within a month,” she says. Anupam has also become part of the trained resource personnel for the agriculture department, earning Rs 15,000 every month for training other women.
“Besides giving us economic freedom, mushroom production brings huge satisfaction to me, as it has empowered hundreds of other village women. Many of them are unlettered, but no longer financially dependent on their husbands. Instead, as earning members, they support their families,” Anupam says, eyes lit up with pride. The fortunes of her family have changed too, with her three younger siblings—two brothers and a sister—in college and doing well academically.
“The returns are good,” she acknowledges. “However, we need government support to expand mushroom production and get access to better markets.” She also wants these women linked to self-help groups with the help of the government. Anupam says it can boost the state’s rural livelihoods programme too. Recognition, too, has come for her. In February this year, Union agriculture minister Radhamohan Singh felicitated Anupam at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Eastern Region, in Patna.
“Anupam has certainly brought economic stability to her family, but she has also inspired many women to take up mushroom farming and contribute financially to their families” Dr Kinkar Kumar, Trainer, Krishi Vigyan Kendra