Mushroom miracle

When he was younger, Mohammad Hossain of Lohagara in Chattogram went to Saudi Arabia to change his fate. Despite working hard in a grocery shop for years, he ultimately failed to do this, and barely survived on a meagre income.

When he came back to Bangladesh in 2020, on a six months leave, he got stuck due to the lockdown. Soon after, his visa expired and he was forced to stay back without a job.

As uncertainty gripped the expatriate from Chunati union, he desperately looked for a job.

But then the 45-year-old remembered his ancestral profession of farming. With a leap of faith and a lot of resolve, he made a pact with himself to turn things around. He took counselling from local agriculture officer Sarwar Alam, and decided to cultivate mushrooms.

In March, 2021, Hossain finished training from Magura's Dream Mushroom Centre. "I contacted them after seeing an advertisement on Facebook," he said. He then started cultivating mushrooms with the small deposit he had.

He built a 30-feet structure next to his house for around Tk 1.5 lakh in June last year and started farming with 200 seeds.

Shortly after, Hossain started selling mushrooms to local markets. He sells raw mushrooms at Tk 200-250 per kg, dry ones at Tk 1,500 and powder at Tk 2,000. He sells a special type of brown-mushroom to pharmaceutical companies for Tk 5,000-10,000 per kg.

"I never thought mushrooms would be my redemption," he added. "After excluding all costs, I'm making around Tk 1,200 per day."

Instead of going abroad, Hossain now wants to start cultivation at a bigger scale in Chattogram.

Sarwar Alam, deputy assistant agriculture officer of Lohagara, said, "Hossain is a role model for unemployed local youths."