Jhenidah woman shows imitable success in mushroom production

JHENIDAH, Feb 15: Farzana Boby, a self-made entrepreneur, started her production of mushroom three years back in Jhenidah Sadar upazila with the help of small financial investment and has gone on to achieve a notable success in the sector, providing inspiration for would-be entrepreneurs.

Having initially set up racks in her kitchen at Kala Luxmipur village, procuring spawn from Faridpur to sell on to retailers in Jhenidah, Boby went on to become the owner of a fairly big farm.

Food Organisation of Bangladesh sent Boby to Vietnam as one of the Bangladeshi entrepreneurs to attend a 10-day training course on 'Mushroom Breeding and Post-Harvest Management' from June 9, 2014 to June 18, 2014.

The programme was arranged at Centre for Plant Biotechnology (PBC), Institute of Agricultural Genetics (AGI), Plam Van Dong Road, Tu Liem District, Hanoi, Vietnam.

The course was designed to reflect a comprehensive knowledge on kinds of mushrooms, their production and marketing.

The course focused on technology of edible and medical mushroom spawns multiplication and production, technology of mushroom processing: dried, salted, canned and bottled mushrooms, and technology of recycling exhausted substrate into organic fertiliser.

Boby supplies mushroom to different places, including Jhenidah town, Jessore, Savar and Dhaka.

Raw, dry mushroom as well as its powder and seeds are also available at the farm.

Herb World Limited preparing herbal medicine at Savar, takes mushroom from Boby regularly.

Boby said that some mushroom-suppliers in Dhaka order for the crop to sell it to a variety of buyers. Some use it for making delicious and nutritious food items while some others purchase it to manufacture materials, which can enhance the beauty of human skin.

According to Boby, mushroom is in great demand in Dhaka as it is used in delicious and nutritious food items, including chops and curries.  Companies buy it for making items enhancing beauty of human skin.  

Now there are 7/8 women working at the centre.  They get their payments regularly.

Sakiran, an employee on the farm told this correspondent that she was paid Tk 3200 per month for helping Boby grow mushrooms.

However, financial crisis is hampering production in 'Boby Mushroom Centre' at the village. For lack of an autoclave machine, the enterprising woman is suffering a lot.

Boby said if she had an arrangement of the sufficient fund, she could turn the wheels of fortune and contribute to economy through growing a huge amount of mushroom.

    aminul104060@gmail.com