Mushroom producer a role model for jobless

Rajiv Mahajan

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Nurpur, March 28

Sunil Dutt, a young entrepreneur who originally hails from remote Langna village in Mandi district, has become a role model for the educated unemployed youth in Kangra district by running a mushroom farm at Anuhi village in Nagrota Surian development block.

He gave up his ambition to become an agricultural scientist. His ‘Dhouladhar Mushroom Farm’ is producing six to seven quintals of mushroom daily and being supplied in the markets of Jammu, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Apart from producing mushrooms, mushroom compost and mushroom seeds are also being produced by the entrepreneur in his air-conditioned farm throughout the year.

Sunil after completing MSc (horticulture) at Dr YS Parmar Horticulture and Forestry University in Solan joined as a manager in a mushroom-producing company, Agro Dutch Industries Ltd, at Chandigarh in 2006, where he was elevated to the post of general manager. After rendering his services for six years in the company, Sunil served as the general manager in the Himalyan International at Ponta Sahib and Inka Foods Ltd, the leading mushroom producing units in Himachal Pradesh. After that, he resigned from his job and decided to set up his mushroom farm in Kangra district.

The young entrepreneur has been selling mushroom, compost and mushroom seeds worth Rs 1.50 crore, in the inter-state markets annually. “I set up a mushroom farm on 12 kanal of land in Anuhi village in 2012 and took Rs 1 crore’s loan from a bank at Jassur for enhancing mushroom production and setting up mushroom compost and seed units at the farm. At present, 25 local unemployed women and men are working at my farm”, he said.

Sunil told The Tribune that under the Central Government-sponsored Integrated Horticulture Development Mission he had availed Rs 22 lakh as subsidy in mushroom farming. He exhorted the youths not to run after government jobs and explore self-employment opportunities in the area close to their homes.