Thursday, 23 December 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Nainital district administration has developed two villages-Hedia and Lweshal in Bhimtal as Mushroom villages with the help of about 300 local women in six months. This programme was initiated by the chief development officer (CDO) Sandeep Tiwari under National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in June this year. Tiwari informed The Pioneer that the topography of Bhimtal is similar to Solan in Himachal Pradesh which is also known as the Mushroom City of India and the administration aims to develop the mushroom cultivation here to the same level. He said, “We started the initiative with Hedia and Lweshal villages six months ago and included about 300 women of self-help groups (SHGS) and four village organisations (VOs) that are currently cultivating mushrooms. The administration plans to promote the cultivation in other villages too and will soon associate 44 VOs under this programme.” Tiwari said that the women associated with mushroom cultivation receive an 80 per cent subsidy in the purchase of one-tonne compost for mushroom cultivation and get the profit of Rs 1,600 on each tonne by selling them at the price range of Rs 200-250 kilogramme. On the question of how the administration is planning to market these mushrooms as many SHGs fail to bring their products in the market amongst other rivals, Tiwari said that the administration is already in talks with the tourism department, hoteliers, restaurant operators and some other organisations to give a market to these mushrooms. He said that most of the mushrooms are currently being sold at the local level but the administration is trying to make them available on electronic commerce (e-commerce) platforms like Amazon and Flipkart to increase the cultivators’ reach to consumers.
“The governor Lieutenant General (retd) Gurmit Singh and Kumaun commissioner Deepak Rawat also visited these villages last week and appreciated the initiative of the administration. We are planning to develop such villages across the district for mushroom cultivation. It is a great source of employment and helps rural women to be independent. We will also start programmes to motivate SHGs women to market their products on their own,” added the CDO.
