Mushroom Development Foundation

Mushroom Development Foundation

When one visits 32, Lamb Road which is the office of MDF, one is sure to see the wall frame of the Ashoka India Award citation awarded to Pranjal Baruah, apart from the Buddhist thangka and an old map of Guwahati.

Pranjal Baruah, a social entrepreneur. He is an Ashoka Fellow, his social enterprise named Protein Food is a consortium of grassroots producers of northeast India with its head office at 32, Lamb Road in Ambari, Guwahati (Assam).

Products- Dry oyster Mushroom, bora chaul (sticky rice), kumol chaul (soft rice), akhoi (rice puff), boga khariah (white mustard), organic green tea, haldi (turmeric), adda (ginger), bhoot jolokia (King Chili) showcased in the largest Food Fair in the world  held at Barcelona in Spain.

Pranjal Baruah, a man who started timber business but whose soul would prick and pinch him for felling the woods as he rightly says “the wow factor was missing” till the time he was in the timber business. His conscience would pierce and hammer him constantly. The sound of the felling of the tress at night was enough to give him sleepless nights. He shunned it to start his initiative on mushroom in 1994. Santi Sadana Ashram, Beltola which made the seed. ‘Spawn’. He took the list, collected the source and met more than a hundred farmers across the state. Ananda Adhikari of RRL, Jorhat was his core advisor. He participated in Ahar 95 in Delhi showcasing agri and horticultural products of the state.

A club member advised him about starting a mushroom business. He went for an 11 days training for entrepreneurs which greatly helped him in hands-on learning, was intensive  and he was able to develop enough of links and network in this domain esp. in Punjab, Haryana and western U.P.

Pranjal had two basic things in mind- economic strength in mushroom and the intensified labour it involves. The cost analysis, enterprise development, the economics, demand, market, need and potentiality was also lurking in his mind.

Mushroom is a healthy, tasty food which grows on agricultural waste. Since he is a man of commerce he loves economics. When 600 million metric tonnes of agricultural waste are there in the country, the waste which could be used as compost since mushroom grows on it, Pranjal realized this quickly and thought of ideas to tap this waste. Moreover, Assam’s climate is conducive as mushroom requires high humidity.

He could foresee lot of challenges since there was hardly any market for mushroom. There was no seed, no laboratory. Hence, he decided to open a lab and zeroed in on Jorhat as the ideal place due to its proximity to Assam Agricultural University. He states that 1996-97 were the struggling years of his life but then God was kind to him later.

In 1995-96 the turnover was below 25,000/ and the following year it slightly increased. The years 1995-98 were by far the dark days of his life. In 1998 a farm was opened in Rani which became a turning point. By 2000, he was even able to repay the bank loan. For marketing he hired a youth. It is important to note here that readers must realize the fact that hiring a youth meant that employment was provided to someone, even though at a micro level, for sustenance.

In 1996, Mushroom Development Foundation was formed. Awareness programme was intensified even when finances were low. The idea of mushroom pakori in exhibitions and fairs shot his mind, like the sapling of a plant that needs nurturing. So, when they did not had to pay for the exhibition the mushroom pakori stall was displayed inside the venue while if there was a fee for participating (meaning it was not free), it was put up outside the exhibition hall. The first time it was tried on an experimental basis, it was in Jonia in Barpeta district. In Jonia bazaar such pakoris were sold on a trial basis. It became an instant hit when the local people termed mushrooms as “pakori bonuwa sabji” in Jonia. In 1998, mushroom pickle hit the stalls which got a good response from the customers considering it was packeted small costing Rs 32 per bottle. Reminiscing those struggling years, Pranjal lights up with a smile when he fondly recollects stating that it was like “Win you win; lose, you return the mushroom”. Very soon, the product hit the restos, fast-foods and the bakeries across the city.

In 2003-04, growth was 25 lakhs. To popularize mushroom, Agricultural Development, Horticulture Department, SIRD, NIRD was roped in. The man behind the popularization of mushroom even fought with Sales Tax Department for exemption for mushroom (Schedule –I). He even went to the extent of studying the law and also placed petition for its exemption from sales tax.

Much disheartened by Indian bureaucracy, he comments that to be a social entrepreneur is a tough job and calls for community governance mechanism.

His organization is named Protein Food, agro-industrial concern (ISO-9001). In 1999, he realized the problem of demand and supply of mushroom and came up with the solution that mushroom will be a common brand where every farmer participates. He also talks about profitability and profit and loss, of not being able to educate the farmers in terms of sustainability.

In 2004, he decided to quit, to stop all his activities on mushroom. His new idea was to change the dynamics to bring about a paradigm shift by bringing the farmers to sustainable production, to open up collection and distribution centres, to empower the local farmers, supply/ value chain under the control of micro-producers/ farmers. The Last Mile Supply Chain- reaching out till the producers’ house, which will in turn help in poverty elevation and rights of farmers will also be assured and there will be dynamics of small producers.

In 300 villages across four states in the north-east there are collection and distribution centres. In more than 100 villages, collection and distribution centres of mushroom has been developed. One such centre is Moupur, Dimoria Block in Kamrup (Rural) district.

In 2004, his business was washed away by the floods. Fortunately, at around the same time he bagged 15,000 US dollars on his idea on poverty elevation which was awarded to him by Clarence Foundation. When in the same year he took loans from banks to increase production from 150 kg to 300 kg, the Malaybari farm in Jagiroad was swept clean by four waves of flood. This is the time when his team left him. The money from Clarence Foundation was channelized for business. By now he had experience and knew the market in and out. It took him almost 10 years to bring market forces together. He says “You don’t have to be producers” for that.

He now uses resource mapping and applies Monetary Information System (MIS) and Geographical Information System (GIS). Farmers were selected, around 1080 were trained and the rest of the money was incurred on infrastructures. In the Cluster Monitoring Committee (CMC), one cluster is to be developed, local market to be developed for sustainability, power groups to be identified amongst teachers, socially active denizens, president  of bazaar samiti, village headman, mahila samiti, naamoti (one who sings in the Naam Ghar/ prayer hall) etc.

In the end, he states that to be a social entrepreneur, one needs empathy not sympathy. His vision is forward marketing, against order (order-based supply).

For more info. pls log on to FB and click Mushroom Development Foundation where one can find much room (pun-intended) and food for thought.