Agartala, Nov 6: There was a time when mushrooms used to be avoided in local markets of Tripura. Blame it on its look and feel, often it was compared with poisonous toadstools. On the contrary, today mushrooms of different sorts have not only made its way to people's daily platter, but also this product of progressive farming is being recognized as a tool to empower women in the villages.
Tripura Bio-technology Council, which has been actively working to converge innovative discoveries with daily life in order to bring about sustainable models for rural development has recently launched its new project called the 'Mushroom Hamlet'.
As the name suggests, women beneficiaries of these villages had been trained in mushroom cultivation with the dual objectives. The primary reason behind this project was to make sure that people of the villages eat the right and nutritious food. Today, mushrooms are proven to be one of the nutrient heavy edibles available in the market.
The second but crucial point was to train the women folks, so that they would be able to do something on their own. "Whatever remains extra could be easily sold out in the market and if any individual wants to grow the product on a commercial scale she should know the pros and cons. With this thinking, we have launched the project and so far eight villages have been adopted under the special scheme. In each of the villages, 20 women beneficiaries were being selected through the local elected bodies and they were being provided with mushroom spawns, Rs 2,000 cash dole for buying husk and other technical assistance from the department", an official said.
One such Mushroom Hamlet is Brajalal Colony area which falls under Surjyamani Nagar Gram Panchayat of West Tripura district. Located in the suburbs of Agartala city, the village still seems distant from the mainstream urbanization. Men mostly depend on manual work and agriculture for bread and butter barring a couple of shops in intervals and women manage the household chores. Mushrooms growing in this village in a way restored the confidence of housewives that they also had something to contribute to the family.
The Pachayat Chief, also a woman—Bhiva Sarkar Das—and a beneficiary of the scheme feels each of the state's villages should be brought under the ambit of the project. "Women under my Panchayat are very happy after receiving training in mushroom. They are now growing mushrooms without any hassle and using it to feed their children. If the production is excess, it is sold in the market because the mushrooms are quite popular nowadays. The stigma has long gone", said Das.
Gouri Rani Majumder, another beneficiary of the village, said, "Tripura Bio-technology Council has been distributing mushroom spawns among us since the last one year. They have been assisting us financially also. The only thing we have to do is to invest our time and hard work to ensure that the spawns grow into full fledged mushrooms". On being asked about the product, she said, "We use it for domestic consumption. Sometimes, if someone comes and asks for Mushroom, we also sell".
Similar was the reply of others like Sima Rani Das and Laxmi Sarkar who had been growing mushrooms for the last one year. The Biotechnology Council has also given 20 filters for the villagers.