Button mushroom compost unit for village growers

This unit makes the compost that white button mushrooms grow on. Wheat straw is soaked, mixed with chicken manure and gypsum, turned for some weeks, then pasteurised (heated in a closed room to kill pests and moulds). It is mixed with mushroom seed, called spawn, and packed in bags that growers take home.

NABARD's credit plan for Jammu says the district suits mushroom growing, that farmers and self-help groups are keen to take it up, and that more compost making units are needed. The Agriculture Department's mushroom division trains growers. Wheat is grown across the irrigated plains, and the plan puts poultry lending at Rs 70.47 crore, so straw and manure are close by.

You need a covered yard with concrete bunkers, a pasteurisation room with a blower and boiler, a straw store, water, and consent from the pollution control board. The hard parts: the compost smells of ammonia, so the site must be well away from homes; one bad batch brings disease and poor crops, and growers will not come back; and bags sell mainly in the cool months, so cash is tight in summer.

Sell to self-help groups and village growers trained by the Agriculture Department, help them sell to traders at Jammu's Narwal fruit and vegetable market, and grow a few bags yourself to test every batch.