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Tangail couple becomes successful entrepreneurs by learning mushroom farming on YouTube-1
" From Despair to Mushroom Delight: A Couple's Journey to Agripreneurship "
Saiful Islam, 34, a resident of Rashra village in Tangail's Basail upazila, sold a piece of his land and borrowed some money to go to Saudi Arabia with a job.
However, during the pandemic, like many other fortune seekers, he had to return home empty-handed in 2021.
It was a bewildering situation for Saiful and his wife Lovely.
With no earnings or savings, they were finding it hard to remain afloat. The couple has two school-going children.
It was then Saiful decided to try mushroom cultivation and make a career out of it.
While abroad, he watched content on mushroom cultivation on YouTube and found it an interesting idea.
He participated in a 10-day online training course at the National Mushroom Development Institute. Later, he collected mushroom spores from Savar and started his farm on a small scale. Three months later, he started harvesting and selling mushrooms.
Meanwhile, his recruiting company in KSA reached out to him and asked him to collect his dues and join work again. It came as a window of opportunity for him to be able to repay his loans.
"Actually, due to pressure from creditors, I needed to pay them back as soon as possible, so I was forced to go abroad again," said Saiful.
He worked there for two more years but his heart remained with his mushroom farm.
"My wife was finding it difficult to manage the farm alone, including maintenance works, production and marketing of mushrooms. So, the farm was shut down," Saiful said.
Meanwhile, Saiful came to know more about mushroom cultivation from YouTube and others involved in it. Two years later he returned permanently with all his savings and reopened the farm to resume mushroom cultivation.
This time the couple had a new plan.
They rented a small shop near Karimganj market nearby and launched a food shop selling items prepared with mushrooms.
"From around 300 spores, we harvest about 4-5 kg of mushrooms daily. Some of those are sold raw, and the rest are used in our shop for various mushroom dishes including chops, fries, and pickles," he said.
"People are, nowadays, aware of the health benefits of mushrooms and many come to the shop to try our dishes. The shop is doing well, with daily earnings ranging from Tk 2,000 to Tk 3,000," he said.
Lovely chipped in, "We named the farm and the mini restaurant after our daughters."
Saiful said he is preparing to expand his business by producing mushroom spores to help others interested in its cultivation.
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