'Mushroom'ing growth in jails

Scientists are training prisoners as well as paramilitary forces to take up mushroom farming in a big way

If you are planning to take someone out for lunch or dinner at a posh hotel in Delhi or any other metros and place an order for a mushroom dish, chances are you will be served mushroom grown by the prisoners of Bihar.

For, as the crop is now ready for harvest, the mushroom cultivated by prisoners will soon be sent to hotels in Delhi and Mumbai. This will be done after the experts visit the prison to examine the quality of mushroom there and give their approval for its commercial use.

Mushroom farming, which is the livelihood for rural people and has nutritional value that could help wipe out malnutrition among children, generates income for marginal farmers. The adopted mushroom are oyster, button, paddy straw and milky white.
The whole concept of mushroom farming by the inmates was conceived last year when Rajendra Agriculture University (RAU), Pusa, Samastipur, outlined a comprehensive plan to motivate the prisoners and undertrials in several sub-divisional jails of North Bihar, including Khudiram Bose Memorial Central Jail at Muzaffarpur, to learn the skills and technologies of mushroom farming.

The agriculture varsity initiated motivational campaigns among the prisoners and undertrials to boost mushroom farming in the state.

As a consequence, university scientists first imparted the necessary skills to the prisoners of the Khudiram Bose Central Jail. A team of experts from the university demonstrated the technologies on the premises of the central jail in Muzaffa­r­pur in which around 500 inmates took part in the day-long training programme.

The team headed by the principal investigator-cum-project in charge of the mushroom production unit, Dayal Ram, along with other technical staff shortlisted 50 prisoners and trained them in scientific cultivation and mushroom production. The tips included preservation of seeds and spawns and farming mushroom inside thatched houses and huts with low cost.

Ram said 50 prisoners were provided booklets on the scientific method of mushroom farming after they expressed their willingness to adopt mushroom cultivation once they come out of the prison wall.

The move was actually a brainchild of RAU Vice-Chancellor Mewalal Choudhary who suggested that a team of expe­rts of the mushroom production unit should pay a flying visit to all the sub-divisional jails in north Bihar to impart training and techniques of growing the crop.

Boost production

“We concentrated on imparting training to prisoners. Our primary objective was to boost mushroom production in the state,” the VC averred and added that main aim was to encourage prisoners to shun the path of violence and anti-social activities, which had landed them in jail.

“This could give them an opportunity for the betterment of not only themselves but also their families and the state. It would be a wholesome development,” he added.
The RAU then decided to provide fina­ncial assistance to the prisoners, once they come out of jails. They would also get loans for running the production unit.

The university also decided to set up a spawn unit of mushroom for multiplying it from the mother culture to increase the accessibility of seeds in the larger interest of boosting its production.

University officials said their objective was to enrich the technologies of farming and enhance mushroom production for its consumption in the jails. Prisoners would also get a source of income by producing mushroom and they may look after the needs and requirements of their families once outside the prison.

Jail officials said initially 50 inmates were engaged in mushroom cultivation, but buoyed by its success, nearly 200 prisoners of the Khudiram Bose Memorial Central Jail are now engaged in mushroom cultivation. More scientists at the RAU have been roped in to train the prisoners in mushroom farming.

Jail official Iftekhar Ahmad said RAU scientists were involved in imparting the necessary skills to inmates of the jail. The prisoners soon learned the skills necessary for the preservation of seeds and spawns and started farming mushroom inside thatched houses and huts at low cost. He admitted that this helped the prisoners earn a little more by cultivating mushroom.

Besides training the jail inmates on how to cultivate mushroom, RAU staff has motivated the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel to do so. It feels that  when the paramilitary force gets time after manning the polling booths or fighting the menace of Maoists, it should get ready to don a new avatar: mushroom farming.
The RAU has suggested that not only paramilitary forces but retired armymen also should disseminate the technology of mushroom production.

Wipe out malnutrition

“Mushroom cultivation, which is the livelihood for rural people and has nutritional value that could help wipe out malnutrition among the children, also generates substantial income for those enga­ged its farming. Because of its nutritional and medicinal qualities, farmers take up mushroom production. But we want to shore up their earnings. This is precisely why we intend to engage CRPF men, who will be trained by the scientists of RAU and then these men-in-uniform will teach the villagers how mushroom farming could be done at a low cost,” said Choudhary.

Of late, mushroom farming has played a significant role in boosting rural economy and facilitate opportunities of livelihood to the farmers. “The adopted mushroom are oyster, button, paddy straw and milky white. Mushroom is fibrous and can be eaten in many forms due to its medicinal importance. The RAU has developed low-cost technology of spawn production from the mother culture of mushroom to facilitate the demand of seeds,” he added.

Rural people will be trained in mushroom farming under the Agriculture Innovative Project. “Being a protein supplement, the mushroom growers are likely to get a good price,” he said.