The increasing trend of mushroom farming serves as a source of livelihood for people hard-pressed in a prevailing economic recession and promotes the intake of healthy and nutritious food, WealthPK reported. As the growing season of mushrooms starts in October, stocks of nutritious food have started arriving in shops of vegetables, attracting the attention of customers towards bell-shaped fungi. Shopkeepers said the customers are showing interest in this food as it was introduced in vegetable markets a couple of years earlier. People, especially city dwellers, ask about mushrooms during the four months of summer when the cultivation stops due to climatic conditions. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s capital city of Peshawar, 250 grams of mushrooms are sold at a price of Rs100 and has become a part of the list of the grocery in many homes. Sher Muhammad, an expert in Mushroom farming, said trial-based training about the cultivation of mushrooms through the modern farming technique has generated interest among the youth and womenfolk to opt for it as a source of livelihood.

Training by private institutes and non-governmental organisations is showing positive results by diverting the attention of several people towards this source of livelihood. A Swiss-based NGO, Helvetas, is engaged in imparting training on mushroom farming in the Charsadda, Bajaur and Mohmand districts of KP province. “We have recently completed training to around 30 families in Tangi area of Charsadda district and trail-based production has shown good results attracting more people to join the practice and made it a vocation for themselves,” said Fayaz Ahmad, Coordinator of Value Chain Helvetas. Experts said 1kg of mushrooms, which take about 35 days to grow, can easily fetch Rs300 profit, and ordinary businessmen can easily produce 500kg mushrooms at home.

Mushrooms cultivation does not require land, and can be grown as a part-time activity. Its cultivation does not require full-time labour and a family member can look after different operations easily. Experts urged the government to consider mushroom farming and arrange training for locals. In the wake of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a large number of Chinese and other foreigners are coming to Pakistan, so the prospects of mushroom growth are also increasing because they use mushrooms in their diet. Afghanistan is also a good market where mushrooms can easily be exported because of their reasonable price.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk