Started with Tk 1,000 of spawn; making his own spawn now earns Tk 7-8 lakh a year

A 26-year-old young man from Tingaon village in Bandar upazila, Narayanganj, started pulling a rickshaw right after his SSC, following his father's death. In 2020, on a friend's advice, he bought just Tk 1,000 of mushroom spawn and started farming. At first he introduced mushrooms to neighbours and relatives by giving them to eat for free, and then small sales began. But when he brought spawn from Dhaka to farm with, he made no profit. So he took training from the Mushroom Development Institute in Savar and started making spawn himself; on his first attempt all the spawn was spoiled, and he learned after several tries. He now sells 8–10 kg of mushrooms a day. By his reckoning, fresh mushrooms cost Tk 80–90 a kg to produce and sell for Tk 250–300; dried mushrooms sell for Tk 1,000–1,500 a kg. He sells a spawn packet that costs Tk 32 for Tk 40. He told BSS his annual income is Tk 7–8 lakh. He has no land of his own; he has turned one of the two rooms of a rented tin shed into a lab, and with help from the Department of Agricultural Extension he has leased neighbouring land and grows mushrooms in two tin sheds. In season he hires day labourers; the rest of the time the family works together.