Business Proposal of Mushroom Cultivation

The Organic Mushroom

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Business Proposal

Prepared by : Arshiya Aryal

                Jayanti Chaudhary

                Kusum Kunwar

                Sharada Badu

                Rahul Bhuju

Executive Summary

Nepal is predominantly agricultural country with almost 80 percent of population depending upon agriculture for their livelihood. The agriculture is traditional; subsistence based producing mostly food crop and very less amount of high value cash crop. The farmers are mostly of weak economic background, with small land holdings and lack of knowledge about technology. Though agricultural development for poverty alleviation and economic growth has been one of the focal points of national policies for a long time, there is still lack of implementation, adequate research and study done in this field. Climatic condition of the country varies from tropical in Terai region to alpine in Himalayan regions. 35 types of forest have been identified in Nepal. Biodiversity of Nepal is also remarkable with wide variety of species of flora and fauna. This gives opportunity for production of many high value products including mushroom. Due to this rich diversity, the potential for mushroom production for both food and medicinal purpose is immense. How ever resources endowed by the diversity have yet to be captured and utilized. This paper deals with the study of current status of mushroom farming, its potentials and challenges.

This Business if highly focus on producing the mushroom and supply the seeds of mushroom if needed in cheaper cost than others. The business is focused on the people who prefers mushrooms as it is one of the highly demanded food in Nepal. The location for the business and production is at Mugling which is in between Pokhara and Kathmandu. The target group is Hotels and party palace where mushrooms have been a preferred item.

The product is natural and organic which have high demand in todays Nepalese market. Today Mushroom is optional or substitute dish for who are vegetarian and it is replacement for Meat.

This is also easy process but people these days finds it long process and waste of time. It has high monetary value as the 1kg of mushrooms can cost up to Rs.600 as per conditions.

Hence, the mushrooms can be even grown in the house as well, this firm can provide the seeds which is ready made and can be grown just by watering the plant.

Situation Analysis

I. INTRODUCTION

Mushroom has been used by man from time immemorial. In Nepal too mushroom has been used as food and medicine for a long time. The cultivation by farmers however is recent and is developing slowly. Beginning from 1970s, mushroom farming is slowly becoming known to farmers and agriculture scientists. The wild varieties with medicinal properties are also becoming slowly known to other countries as well. There are few wild species of medicinal importance and high value which are exported to other countries. This however is in very small scale, without any institutional structure. Their commercial cultivation has yet to be done.

Currently about five species of mushroom are cultivated in commercial scale. Among them white button mushroom and oyster mushroom is produced more and is consumed more. Straw mushroom is also being cultivated in Terai region which is tropical climate.

Due to wide variations of climatic condition, such as tropical, sub-tropical, temperate and alpine a wide variety of mushrooms are found in the forests of Nepal. In Nepal, 760 species of mushrooms have already been recorded as wild. Of

these, 170 species have been tested and proven as ‘edible mushrooms’. However, only a few species have a high demand from abroad.

II. HISTORY OF MUSHROOM FARMING IN NEPAL

Mushroom cultivation is relatively new in Nepal. The research for mushroom cultivation began in 1974 under Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC). Cultivation of white button mushroom in 1977 was first mushroom farming done by farmers. Plant pathology division in NARC began distribution of spawn. Oyster mushroom was introduced to farmers in 1984. In the beginning a handful of farmers started this farming in Bhaktapur and Kathmandu district. After successful production of oyster mushroom, the number of farmers increased to 50. At present there are about 5000-6000 mushroom farmers in Kathmandu alone. The average production is about 8000- 10000 kilograms per day. Pokhara and Chitwan are other major mushroom producers. Other districts also produce these two species but in very less amount, barely enough to meet local demand.

The research for other species has also begun lately. Research for Shiitake and Ganoderma is being done from 2001, by NARC as well as a private organization, Centre for Agriculture Technology (CAT) under one of the pioneer scientist in mushroom, Dr Keshari L Manandhar. In few areas in and around Kathmandu, Shiitake is being produced successfully. Other than these, straw mushroom farming was started in Terai region.

Initially, spawn distribution was done by NARC only. But now, spawn are being produced by private companies as well. Currently there are 9-10 spawn distributing private organizations in Kathmandu.

Though in Pokhara too this was tried, the spawn produced there was not satisfactory. Hence, almost all spawn is distributed from Kathmandu.

Mushroom farming started in small scale among small farmers. There had been few big producers, such as Snow white mushroom, Himalayan Mushroom. They had capacity to produce 5000 kg per day. But these companies failed to make profit due to high cost of production and eventually closed down. At present, mushroom producers are mostly small farmers, producing 300-500 kg per day. They have been able to meet demand thus far.

2.1 Market Summary

Oyster Mushroom Cultivation in Nepal

Oyster mushroom cultivation was introduced to Nepalese scientists in 1981. Research on the proper substrate and climatic conditions for oyster mushroom growing was carried out by the Division of Plant Pathology. Growing Pleurotus sajor-caju on stump and chopped paddy straw packets was successful in Kathmandu in 1982. The technology, which was distributed to farmers in 1984, was so simple, easy to adopt and suitable to the climate of Kathmandu valley that farmers could adopt it quickly. The cultivation practices, which produced quick returns, spread like wildfire. Poor farmers were willing to try mushroom growing on a small scale in order to augment their incomes. The growing of the species P. ostreatus was introduced later in 1998. These days farmers prefer P. ostreatus because it has higher productivity and can be grown during the winter in Kathmandu. Thanks to this durability, local consumers can now obtain oyster mushrooms all the year round. These mushrooms have been grown recently in the Terai districts (a tropic area) during winter and also transported to markets in Kathmandu.