Born to a farmer family, Haryana’s Vikas Verma saw his family grow traditional crops like wheat and bajra.
As he cleared Class 12, Vikas quit his pursuit of higher education and tried to find ideas for his farming startup. Soon, he discovered mushroom farming in nearby Sonipat.
“A significant number of farmers were growing mushrooms and earning good profits there,” the Hisar resident explains.
So, at the age of 18, Vikas started Vedanta Mushroom Pvt Ltd to begin mushroom farming with 5,000 compost bags. Sadly, his experiment incurred a loss of Rs 14 lakh.
“I spent Rs 14 lakh to buy spawns, prepare bags, and set up a unit to grow mushrooms. I failed miserably. It was a major blow to my ambitious project, but I decided to continue and learn from my mistakes,” he adds.
The 24-year-old farmer learned that his compost was not ideal for mushroom growth. He then corrected the formula to become a successful grower.
The young farmer also sought help from the officials of the agriculture department who suggested he dry the mushrooms and sell them with value addition.
“I started drying mushrooms to make powder and preparing health drinks, biscuits, papad, and pickles,” he adds.
Today, Vikas grows button, oyster and milky mushrooms that earn him ten times more. “Against the price of Rs 100 per kilo, I sell the mushrooms at Rs 1,000 per kilo of value-added products,” he adds.
Eventually, he was able to transform his mushroom farming experiment into a bumper success which today earns him an annual revenue of Rs 50 lakh.