Ramchandra S Dubey, hailing from Pacholi village in district Jaunpur, UP, recently published his video on FTB. His brand is named Annapurna Agro Enterprises.
For last forty years, he has worked in different industries in different roles. In 2017, he returned to his village and attended a 5-day course at the local Krishi Vigyan Kendra. He attended the training which began on 26 July 2017.The training that he received was in growing mushrooms. He then had an idea which was to make a group of farmers and teach them to grow mushrooms. He has remained associated with the local Krishi Vigyan Kendra ever since. His idea has been a success and lots of farmers are associated with him and growing mushrooms.
Oyster mushrooms can be grown by farmers all round the year irrespective of the weather conditions and easily. Most of the farmers associated with him are growing oyster mushrooms. Next step his brand has to take is towards marketing. He also heads the Annapurna Gram Udyog Sansthan, organization that trains the farmers in mushroom farming. The brand Annapurna Agro Enterprises not only sells the raw mushrooms but also processes them into mushroom pickle, mushroom pakora, mushroom namkeen, mushroom biscuits which are then sold in the market.
He spent 37 years of his life, from 1980 to 2017, in Mumbai but he says that his life in Mumbai can never match the atmosphere and the enjoyment he gets with these farmers. He wants to encourage farmers and enthusiasts of Jaunpur district to join him and farm mushrooms with him. Mushroom growing is a profitable business. He said mushrooms can be easily grown with paddy straw. He said paddy straw which was earlier used as cattle feed is not in use due to lack of cattle and is difficult to dispose of. He proposes a solution which is to use this paddy straw to grow mushrooms.
Mushroom is a healthy food, rich in vitamins and minerals and are mostly farmed indoors. Mushroom diet will keep you healthy. Farmers not satisfied with traditional farming, willing to learn mushroom farming and within 25-20 kms reach of Mr. Dubey can contact him at 8169083775 for training and advice, from 10 am in the morning till 10 pm at night. He says that Prime Minister has promised to double farmers income and farming mushrooms can be one way to achieve this. Mushroom farming can also be a solution to the "burning parali" problem as instead of burning the straws you can use them to farm mushrooms.
He said he lives for mushrooms, sleeps with mushrooms, wakes up with mushrooms and mushrooms is the only topic that he talks about. He hopes to generate more employment for the youth through mushrooms farming. The local Krishi Vigyan Kendra is the temple where if the farmer prays, the gods will definitely reply. The energetic, hard working and intelligent scientists work day and night to support us. They can train the farmers willing to learn and especially about mushroom farming.
When I started mushroom farming in district Jaunpur, I aimed to work with as many farmers as I could. The DM Malappa Bangari named Mr.Dubey the Mushroom Man of Jaunpur in a meeting. In our district if you go to any educational or governmental institution and ask about help on mushrooms you will always be directed towards Mr. Dubey, the local Mushroom Man. Educating enthusiasts about mushrooms is great fun for me and something that I enjoy extremely.
He continues that if you have spare rooms in your house or if you can make some good bamboo shelters, you can easily start mushrooms farming. He said although the general preference is for button mushrooms he would recommend Oyster mushrooms. Growing Oyster mushrooms is cheaper, you invest less you get more, it needs less manpower, its healthier in terms of nurition value. He plans to invent mushroom samosas. He said you can dry Oyster mushrooms and store them in powder form, for long term use.
He says that mushrooms are an interesting topic and he hopes that many more farmers in the district will take up mushroom farming. It will not only have financial benefits, but the farmer family that eats them will all stay healthy. It's something he guarantees based upon his experience. He said poor farmers with none or very low earnings can easily grow mushrooms and survive on them and stay healthy.