KOCHI: “Mushrooms are ideal for high intensity cultivation in confined spaces. Apart from its nutritious value and market demand for the product, mushrooms make for good investments ,’says Jithu Thomas, a mushroom cultivator based in Piravom.Jithu has developed a novel method of cultivating mushrooms around the year. The cultivation is carried out in a specially designed polyhouse with controlled temperature and humidity conditions.
What started off a hobby during college days has now become a profitable business model, with two mushroom farms extending across 2500 sqft. The high intensity cultivation has 5000 mushroom beds yielding upto 50kg produce per day. His farm also has a mushroom culture lab to ensure availability of quality spawns. The farm which was initially a family business run by Jithu and his mother Leena Thomas, now has Abel V Raj as a business partner. He takes care of marketing and selling the produce to around 50 retailers in the city.
“A lot of reading and trial-and-error methods went to finding the optimal farming model. Mushrooms require a temperature of 25 to 28 degree Celsius for growth. While the seasonal variations in temperature used to affect the yield earlier, the temperature controlled farm now gives yield through the year. While I started with mushroom cultivation as a hobby during college days, it developed into a serious interest over time. I had also attended a mushroom culture course at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kumarakom,”says Jithu, who holds a postgraduate degree in social work.
While Jithu has been cultivating mushrooms for the past 10 years, he turned it into a profitable full-time business model during the last two years by designing the polyhouse model farm which exclusively grows the oyster variety of mushroom.There are several advantages associated with Mushroom cultivation. From being a relatively low maintenance crop that can be adapted into an intensive farming model in less area of cultivation, it also has many takers among the health conscious consumers.
The market rates of mushroom which goes upto Rs 400 for a kg also makes it a lucrative optionFreshly harvested mushrooms are sold to retailers on the same day, with no middlemen. They are sold as 200gm packages under the brand name of ‘Leena’s Mushrooms’. The farm also provides employment to eight women from their neighbourhood. They are also in works of setting up two more farms to scale up production.
Meet Jithu Thomas, who has made a successful business model out of a hobby he started while in college—growing mushrooms