SHAHED Ahmed, an ambitious youth of Tongi, is desperate to change his life, but he is not interested in education but in business. So, he received training on mushroom cultivation when he was an HSC student and it paid dividends.
On completion of his training, Shahed gave up his study and paid full attention to mushroom fanning. First, he began on a limited scale and the profit was good. Gradually, he extended the circle. He made a profit of Tk 25,000 in just two months by investing Tk 50,000. The success encourages him to go further. Assisted by four employees, Shahed now also produces mushroom seed.
Ratna Islam of Savar has another success story in mushroom fanning. But once she was deadly opposed to taking mushroom considering it a fungus. When some of her neighbours began fanning mushroom after training in the adjacent Mushroom Development Project, she became interested and began the journey after training. She has been producing seed for quite a long time. Now, Ratna sells mushroom and its seed to her neighbours.
Although mushroom is a popular and nutritious food in many countries of the world, many in Bangladesh had long been ignoring this stuff considering it a fungus. But today this mushroom has become bread and butter of many people.
Actually, mushroom is a very nutritious, delicious and fully 'halal' vegetable having medicinal qualities. Though its acceptance once was limited to a handful of people, now there has been a gradual change in the impression.
Mushroom cultivation in Bangladesh began in 1979 with assistance from Japanese organisation JOCDV. Later, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JAICA) came up in 1987 with its assistance. Mushroom cultivation slowed down in 1990 following withdrawal of JAICA's support.
In 2003, the government introduced a Mushroom Development Project under Agriculture Extension Department for making mushroom popular among the people.
Different research works are being conducted under the project in addition to providing, training on mushroom cultivation.
Apart from Savar, this project has activities in Dinajpur, Jessore, Barisal, Chittagong, Sylhet, Comilla, Khulna, Mymensingh, Bandarban, Rangamati, Chapainawabganj and Rangpur for motivating people to cultivate mushroom.
Sheikh Ruhul Amin, director of the Mushroom Development Project, says currently 13 species of mushroom are cultivated in Bangladesh of which Wester Mushroom is produced commercially to a large extent. Mushroom fanning is in fact a very easy job. There is an opportunity to make good profit by investing a little amount of capital and labour. One can earn Tk 4-5 thousand a month by investing only Tk 10- 15 thousand.
Mushroom seed or spawn is produced through tissue culture, which is bought by farmers at a cost of Tk 6-10. To get the harvest from the seed, it has to be kept in a wet place and needs to be sprayed with water three times a day. Mushroom can be collected for over two months from each span, which will weigh about 200 grams. The farmers begin to harvest within next 8-10 days from the day of cultivation.
There are such advantages in mushroom cultivation that cannot be found in farming of other crops. Mushroom is a fungus-type colourless plant. As they are colourless, they do not need sunlight to survive or grow. Besides, mushroom cultivation does not require soil. Mushroom seed can be sowed using industrial waste like wooden dust and husk of wheat and rice. After production, these elements become fertiliser. There is no need of any insecticide or chemical fertiliser for mushroom farming. Given a suitable environment and proper nursing its cultivation is possible throughout the year. Electricity is not needed for mushroom cultivation.
A buyer can buy mushroom in three forms -- fresh, dry and powder. Mushroom generally stays fresh for a day. If refrigerated, it stays fresh for two three days. A kilogram of fresh mushroom sells at Tk 80-200, dry one at Tk 1000-1200 while the powder sells at Tk 1200-1500.
Mushroom food is prepared in different ways in different countries. The mushroom soup, fry and vegetable available in Chinese restaurants of our country are very delicious. Mushroom can be used with fish, meat and vegetables.
Mushroom is a highly nutritious vegetable. ST Chang, a professor emeritus of Biology at Chinese University of Hong Kong, and PG Miles, a US scientist, co-authored a book named, 'Edible Mushroom and their Cultivation. To them, the amount of protein in mushroom is double than other vegetables. So, it is called vegetable protein.
A recent article by mushroom researcher Prof SM Alam and Rizwan Manjur published in Pakistan's Dawn newspaper shows mushroom is identified as a good source of iron, copper, calcium, potassium, vitamin D and folic acid.
Mushroom has also been used for a long time as a medicinal plant. It works in preventing different diseases. After making antibiotic from fungus, fungus-type plants (mushroom) have been contributing wonderfully for the last 50 years in making medicine. Medicines like Penicillin, tetracycline, oriomycin etc., that are made from fungus have been used effectively against infection and infectious diseases.
Experts in a health-related website said edible mushrooms have multi-dimensional effects that help prevent different diseases. Special elements of some species of mushroom particularly work in preventing diseases like cancer, kidney problems, hepatitis, AIDS, asthma, diabetes, insomnia and tumor. Medicinal mushroom also plays a role in reducing cholesterol and ridding of mental exhaustions. It is learnt from an alternative medicine-related website that a mushroom called Reishi is being used in AIDS treatment.
On inventing medicine from mushroom in the 21st century, ST Chang says it can be said based on the research in the last two decades mushroom will be able to play a successful role in the future in those fields where modem medicine system will fail.
There is a huge prospect of mushroom cultivation in Bangladesh. It can play an important role in eradicating malnutrition, one of the main problems of the people, and preventing diseases. By mushroom cultivation, it is possible to alleviate poverty and providing employment for educated unemployed, youths, adolescents and women.
The amount of agricultural land is decreasing day by day. But the population is going up. So is the demand for food. As mushroom does not require soil and its food value is very high, the country's food deficit can be reduced to a great extent by extensive fanning of mushroom.
Mushroom has already been an important crop in developed countries. It is possible to earn foreign currency after meeting the domestic demand. The amount of money earned by exporting mushroom is very low at this moment.
There is a need for extensive publication in raising the acceptability of this vegetable. But, it is important to make mushroom acceptable so that people are not provided any exaggerated information about it. Mushroom, for instance, helps prevent diseases but the use of mushroom, as a preventive is not desirable because the issue of using mushroom as drug is still under research. So, a person having diseases against which mushroom creates resistance must undertake treatment for his diseases.
Like booming dairy and poultry industries, it is very much possible to transform mushroom into an industry. For that, eliminating adverse perception, mushroom will have to be made acceptable to the people. Besides, effective steps need to be taken for its marketing.
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