malda: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her administrative meeting at the Malda College Auditorium on May 4 directed the district administration and Horticulture department to promote mushroom cultivation in the district.
To that effect, the district Horticulture department has sent a proposal to the concerned state ministry to set up a spawn production unit of mushroom.
This will make the cultivation of mushrooms cost effective and more profitable to the farmers.
The production unit is proposed to be built in the horticulture farm of Malda in Madhabnagar area which falls under the English Bazar Police Station.
So far, the farmers in the district had to bring spawns from Jalpaiguri or Kolkata for the cultivation which raised the production cost.
If spawns are produced in Malda the farmers can get them at a low price. The move will make the cultivation cost effective and the profit margin will also increase.
Samanta Layek, Deputy Director of district Horticulture department, said: “Apart from giving technical support we must have a spawn production unit in Malda for our farmers to provide the farmers with them at a low cost. Buying spawns from other districts is actually raising production cost while cutting off farmers’ profit. So we sent a proposal to the state for setting up a production unit in our farm in Madhabnagar.”
Such a unit can be built with a fund of rupees 10 to 12 lakh. Spawns of both oyster and milky, edible varieties of mushrooms, will be produced in the proposed unit.
The oyster mushrooms are usually grown in winter and milky mushrooms are in the summers. The mushroom is produced in the districts sporadically.
A small unit is run at Disco More in Old Malda block by a farmer, Sonai Halder and by some Self-Help Groups (SHG) in various places.
Halder who has been in this field from 2013 opined that a steady market of the consumers of these mushrooms should be created through campaigns.
“Spawn production units in Malda will certainly give us more benefits but the quality of spawns should be high. It should equate with the types found in Jalpaiguri. Very few people eat mushrooms in their daily meal. So an awareness and acceptance of the people is needed for the market of mushrooms to grow.”