Born in a Rajasthan village, Shanker Meena spent his adolescence enjoying amid wheat and mustard plants. However as he grew up, he noticed his father toil day and night time to domesticate the ones plants that may get broken because of the wrath of nature, leading to low crop yield and thereby unsure profits.
To faucet right into a solid source of revenue, he went on to finish his upper research in trade and due to this fact joined RA Podar Institute of Control to pursue a occupation in finance. On the other hand, Shanker dropped out of the school proper after the finishing touch of his first semester in 2012.
“Even though I took the admission, again in my thoughts, I might at all times take into accounts new trade concepts. My middle belonged to farming. So, I sought after to discover a method to amalgamate farming and trade,” the MBA dropout tells The Higher India.
A few years later, Shanker fulfilled his dream via launching his corporate ‘Jeevan Mushroom’ the place he sells spawns of a wide variety of mushrooms together with button, oyster, lion’s mane, paddy straw, shiitake, ganoderma, portobello, and extra.
As of late, he has established an enormous marketplace base now not best in India but in addition out of the country the place he exports his produce to neighbouring international locations together with Bhutan and Nepal, and the UAE. These days, his per month income stands at Rs 13 lakh.
Mushrooming concepts
For Shanker, the verdict to give up MBA used to be now not simple. “Folks doubted my skills and wired that it used to be time for me to pay attention to shaping my occupation as a substitute of operating a trade at this age. Folks from my caste are anticipated to change into IAS officials. I used to be by no means taken with that. And to make it worse, I give up my school after the primary semester mocking the expectancies of the villagers,” he laughs.
Anyway, after falling by the wayside of faculty, Shanker attempted his fingers at cultivating mushrooms. “This product used to be new at the moment and used to be common in lodges. I knew that this trade would increase sooner or later,” he says.
So in 2015, Shanker went to the ICAR-Directorate of Mushroom Analysis in Solan to know the nitty-gritty of cultivating mushrooms. Coming again, he vacated a small room of his area and arrange the bottom for cultivating mushrooms.
“In a couple of months, I noticed that Rajasthan didn’t have a unmarried unit that manufactured mushroom spawns. Folks had been depending on states like Himachal, Haryana, and Delhi to supply the seeds. I noticed this as a great alternative that may lend a hand me stand out within the crowd,” he provides.
For this, Shanker sourced the mum tradition from ICAR, Solan and arrange a brief ‘jugaad’ (make-do lab) within the storage of his area to domesticate spawns on a tribulation foundation. In the meantime, he additionally controlled to get a mortgage of Rs 9 lakhs underneath the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana. With the mortgage quantity and fiscal enhance from friends and family, he labored on organising a devoted lab unfold throughout a space of 9,000 sq-ft.
Within the lab, he offered complex items of equipment like seed germination chambers, vertical autoclaves, and a laminar airflow cupboard to supply a sterile running atmosphere for higher productiveness.
In 2017, after 5 years of analysis and building, Shanker formally introduced his corporate which he runs at the side of his spouse, Kanchan Meena. With the assistance of social media, he began getting orders for mushroom spawns in bulk.
As of late, Shanker produces as much as 80 tonnes of mushroom spawns in his lab. Priced between Rs 90-115 consistent with kg, his spawns have an enormous call for in different states together with Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Assam.
Why he was a hit
As of late, mushroom cultivation has won recognition amongst small-scale farmers for its low enter prices, quite prime yield, and go back on funding. However, Shanker opines, now not many of us are in a position to extract as a lot benefit owing to a loss of medical method.
“The explanation why we was a hit is as a result of I at all times wired at the high quality of spawns this is most often compromised on this trade,” he says.
He additional explains intimately, “Like different plants of wheat and greens, we shouldn’t have a seed for mushrooms. This can be a fungus which is manufactured in hygienic stipulations in a lab. We require a tissue tradition and mom spawn to multiply this fungus and get extra spawns for commercialisation.”
“However farmers take a shortcut and stay multiplying spawns the use of the industrial spawns, as a substitute of making ready a special tissue tradition and mom spawn. This reduces the standard of the spawns and makes them liable to sicknesses. Whilst they would possibly not apply the impact in an instant, it’s noticed via farmers best once they get a low yield,” he provides.
Even though Shanker earns a good benefit lately, it isn’t all roses at all times. “Along side income, we additionally incur losses now and again. Closing yr, we confronted losses price Rs 27 lakh. I used to be receiving court cases of low yield. After I checked the equipment, I discovered available in the market used to be a skinny hair dimension leakage that infected the spawns,” he says.
“Every so often, I am getting discouraged via such scenarios and I believe like quitting. However then I glance again at my adventure and I believe crushed to have come up to now. I’ve a trade background and the primary time I noticed a check tube used to be right through my coaching. Such small achievements inspire me to try for the good fortune of my corporate. That’s why now I don’t stay a plan B,” he smiles.
Shanker has additionally been conferred with Modern & Leading edge Farmer awards via the Rajasthan govt in 2019 and Leading edge Agricultural Startup via the Startup India in 2020.
Edited via Padmasshree Pande. All photographs: Shanker Meena.