There is a new heroine for 6,000-odd families from 22villages of Nalanda in Bihar. For people cultivating mushroom as a source oflivelihood, not only in Nalanda but across the state, Madhu Patel, and morespecifically her laboratory for mushroom seedlings (called spawns), is morethan a godsend. She is an icon, a source of inspiration.
Patel, who opened a spawn lab in Rajgir in September 2011,says mushroom cultivators from several parts of Bihar, and even nearby states,come to her to buy seedlings now. There’s reason why they do: earlier one hadto travel all the way to Delhi or Solan in Himachal Pradesh to get the spawns.And that was only half the battle, for it was no less than a Herculean task tobring the spawns to Nalanda without ruining them.
Patel remembers her own fight over buying spawns and thengetting them to Nalanda, when she started a business on a small scale in Hilsaand had to travel to other states to buy the seedlings. Patel, like mostentrepreneurs, had her moment of ‘enlightenment’ in 2009, when she got in touchwith the Agriculture Technology Management Agency, or ATMA. Soon, the Botanygraduate from Hilsa College in Nalanda was sent to Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, toget training in mushroom cultivation. Already aware that mushroom is easy tocultivate, provided the spawns are available locally, she next underwenttraining in spawn-producing at Solan in 2010. Buying a small autoclave, shestarted producing spawns with the help of ultraviolet tubes at home, at aminuscule level initially.
Patel acknowledges the inspiration lent by Nalanda’sdistrict agriculture officer Sudama Mahto, who was ATMA’s programme director ofas well in 2010: “I wanted to set up a spawn lab in Nalanda. But I could nothave done it without Mahto’s motivation and insight, and district magistrateSanjay Kumar Agrawal’s help.” While opening the lab at Rajgir cost her `15lakh, Patel says she was helped to a large extent by the National HorticultureMission Programme, which helped her arrange half the investment. The rest, shesays, came from banks and her family.
The local administration and the agriculture ministry alsoencouraged her mission, Patel says. A year since its inauguration, the lab isnow frequented by hundreds of mushroom cultivators from not only Nalanda butDhanbad, Gaya, Ranchi, Patna and Hazipur as well.
Thanks largely to her efforts, aganwadi kendras of Nalandanow include mushrooms on their menu once a week due to its high nutritionalvalue. “The local administration has now tied up with Sudha (Bihar’s milkcooperative) to sell mushrooms at Sudha counters,” district magistrate SanjayAgrawal says. “So there is no dearth of a market in Nalanda.”
