mushroom cultivation a home business by dr munir aup peshawar
TRANSCRIPT
Mushroom cultivation: a home business.Opportunities for self-employment for youth,unemployed graduates and females
Prof. Dr. Munir Khan KhattakDept. of Agricultural & Applied Economics
The University of Agriculture, Peshawar
Mushroom Cultivation
Post-independence Pakistan has retained a feudal system of land tenure in which an elite class of landowners owns vast holdings worked by tenant farmers and laborers who live in persistent poverty . Seventy percent of Pakistan’s population and 74% of Pakistan’s poor live in rural areas; among the rural poor, the incidence of poverty is greatest among agricultural laborers and tenants (Islam 1996).
Mushroom Cultivation
Poverty in Pakistan is strongly correlated with landlessness. According to the World Bank (2009), 2% of households control more than 45% of all land, severely constraining agricultural competitiveness and livelihood opportunities. Anwar et al. (2002) found that poverty is highest (54%) among the landless, noting that only 0.08% of Pakistani households own more than 2 ha of land, and that unequal land distribution is the primary manifestation of poverty in rural Pakistan.
Mushroom Cultivation
Mushroom is widely cultivated as a proteineous vegetable in many countries of the world including Pakistan. Its cultivation requires less space, care, equipment and cost compared to many other crops and livestock.
Mushroom Cultivation• Mushroom cultivation requires very little land
and can be good source of employment for small and lanless farmers, educated youth and women.
• Indoor cultivation of mushrooms utilizes the vertical space and is regarded as the highest protein producer per unit area and time-almost 100 times more than the conventional agriculture and animal husbandry.
Mushroom Cultivation• Mushroom production is economically important
since it can contributes to the economy in terms of nutritional value and reduce unemployment. Mushrooms are called “white gold”. The global food and nutritional security of growing population is a great challenge, which looks for new crop as source of food and nutrition.
• In this context, mushrooms find a favour which can be grown even by landless people, that too on waste material and could be a source for proteineous food.
Mushroom Cultivation
• Mushroom cultivation is attractive for the resource-poor for two reasons. Firstly, because mushroom cultivation can be done on any scale, the initial financial outlay to establish a basic cultivation system need not be very great, and substrate materials are often free.
Mushroom Cultivation
An example from Thailand illustrates the points:• a mushroom house large enough to hold 1000
mushroom bags can be built for less than US$15, utilizing the materials available locally.
• Secondly, compared to many agricultural and horticultural crops, mushroom production systems have a short turn around; a harvestable crop can be produced and sold within two to four months, which is very helpful for small-scale producers.
• Mushroom Cultivation
Similarly a research study has been conducted in NARC to estimate the cost of production of button mushroom and to find the economic feasibility of mushroom cultivation for small scale farmers.
Mushroom Cultivation
• The results of the study have indicated that the mushroom production is economically feasible as it can give maximum net return to the farmers by reducing their cost of production. Its cultivation is dependent on the agricultural raw material which is cheaply available to the farmers.
• It involves less investment but can give the farmer the more return on per rupee investment.
Mushroom Cultivation
Mushroom production being an indoor activity, labour intensive and high profit venture provides ample opportunities for gainful employment of small farmers, landless labourers, women and unemployed youth.
• Future Market Demand for Mushroom• With the growing awareness for nutritive and quality food by growing health conscious population, the demand for food including mushrooms is quickly rising and will continue to rise with increase in global population which will be 8.1 billion by 2025.
• The mushroom cultivation has grown up in almost all the parts of the world and during last three decades, the world mushroom production achieved the growth rate of about 10%.
• Globally, China is the leading producer of mushrooms with more than 70% of the total global production, which is attributed to community based farming as well as diversification of mushrooms.
• Labour intensive• Mushroom production being an indoor activity,
labour intensive and high profit venture provides ample opportunities for gainful employment of small, farmers, landless labourers, women and unemployed youth.
• Therefore, promotion of mushroom cultivation shall a step to meet nutritional needs to reduce malnutrition and providing livelihood to landless poor.
• Income Benefits • Mushroom cultivation activities can play an important role in supporting the local economy by contributing to subsistence food security, nutrition, and medicine; generating additional employment and income through local, regional and national trade; and offering opportunities for processing enterprises (such as pickling and drying).
• Income from mushrooms can supplement cash flow, providing either:
• a safety net during critical times, preventing people falling into greater poverty; • a gap-filling activity which can help spread income and generally make poverty more bearable through improved nutrition and higher income; or• a stepping stone activity to help make people less poor, or even permanently lift them out of poverty.
• One of the major areas that can contribute towards goal of conservation of natural resources as well as increased productivity is recycling of agro-wastes including agro-industrial waste. Utilizing these wastes for growing mushrooms can enhance income and impart higher level of Sustainability.
• Mushroom production is economically important can contribute to the economy in terms of nutritional value and reduce unemployment. Mushrooms are called “white gold”
• Meeting the food demand for the increasing population from the limited land resource is a big challenge. The global food and nutritional security of growing population is a great challenge, which looks for new crop as source of food and nutrition.
• In this context, mushrooms find a favour which can be grown even by landless people, that too on waste material and could be a source for proteineous food.
Economics important of Mushroom
• Lanless farmers• Mushroom cultivation requires very little land and can be good source of employment for small and lanless farmers, educated youth and women.
• Indoor cultivation of mushrooms utilizes the vertical space and is regarded as the highest protein producer per unit area and time-almost 100 times more than the conventional agriculture and animal husbandry.
• Market Demand• Major issues which are confronting and are likely to continue to do so in foreseeable future are:
• i) population growth, ii) income growth and iii) urbanization.
• During the next 18-20 years these factors will determine the demand for food in general and mushrooms in particular throughout the world, especially in the developing countries.
• The rate of population growth is still high in developing countries as compared to developed countries.
• Labour intensive• Mushroom production being an indoor activity,
labour intensive and high profit venture provides ample opportunities for gainful employment of small, farmers, landless labourers, women and unemployed youth.
• Therefore, promotion of mushroom cultivation shall a step to meet nutritional needs to reduce malnutrition and providing livelihood to landless poor.
• Income Benefits • Mushroom cultivation activities can play an important role in supporting the local economy by contributing to subsistence food security, nutrition, and medicine; generating additional employment and income through local, regional and national trade; and offering opportunities for processing enterprises (such as pickling and drying).
• Income from mushrooms can supplement cash flow, providing either:
• a safety net during critical times, preventing people falling into greater poverty; • a gap-filling activity which can help spread income and generally make poverty more bearable through improved nutrition and higher income; or• a stepping stone activity to help make people less poor, or even permanently lift them out of poverty.
• Sustainability.• One of the major areas that can contribute towards goal of conservation of natural resources as well as increased productivity is recycling of agro-wastes including agro-industrial waste. Utilizing these wastes for growing mushrooms can enhance income and impart higher level of Sustainability.
• value-added products.
• Being an indoor crop, the commodity provides immense opportunities for empowerment of rural and urban women through cultivation and also the production of value-added products.
POTENTIAL TARGET MARKETS
• The marketing of mushroom follows the traditional distribution channel, through middlemen or wholesalers at farm who identifies potential buyers and negotiate price, or directly to retailers in urban markets.
• The time and cost spent in transportation, from farm to the retail shop, varies from area to area.
• The key factors in marketing are availability of current market information, quality of mushroom and supply & demand which will determine the selling price.
• PRODUCTION PROCESS FLOW• The important channels of mushroom marketing in the area are:
• (1) Mushroom grower Wholesaler/Commission agent → Retailer→ Consumer,
• (2) Mushroom grower →Wholesaler/Commission agent → Consumer,
• (3) Mushroom grower→ Retailer→ Consumer, and• (4) Mushroom grower→ Consumer.
Mushroom production and processing
Mushroom production and processing
Spawn production
Growing Mushroom
Packaging
Labeling
Transporting
Marketing
Compose preparation