In 2010, Pushpa Jha started learning mushroom farming, long before it became popular in Darbhanga, Bihar.

Pushpa’s journey began when her husband, Ramesh, discovered a mushroom farming programme at Pusa, Samastipur. “My husband did not want me to sit idle at home and encouraged me to engage in a productive activity,” she shares.

Pushpa, a high school dropout, accompanied Ramesh to the training but was initially turned away as the programme was full. But Ramesh pleaded with the officials, and they allowed Pushpa to attend the six-day workshop.

After the training, Pushpa began growing mushrooms with just Rs 500 and limited space in their 600 sq ft home.

“I grew mushrooms under the bed or some humid space in the corner. I used wheat husks and rotten hay balls as the medium to grow the fungi,” she says.

She packed the growing medium in polythene bags and arranged them to create optimal humid conditions. Initially, Pushpa used the mushrooms for family meals.

Determined to scale up, Pushpa took a bold step by renting land in Balbhadrapur village. There, she built a bamboo shed and cultivated 1,000 bags of button mushrooms.

However, her excitement soon turned to disappointment. “Back then, hardly anyone knew what mushrooms were or how to eat them,” she recalls. Despite her efforts, no one was willing to buy them.

To overcome this, Pushpa distributed 200-gram packets for free and taught people how to cook mushrooms. “I taught people to cook and consume them in the form of vegetables, pakodas (mushroom fritters), and other items,” she says.

Pushpa then expanded her farming to include oyster and milky mushrooms. As people started enjoying her mushrooms, her orders increased, earning her Rs 500 per day.

To cut costs, Pushpa started preparing her own compost and spawns. As her success grew, women from the neighbourhood started asking her for lessons in mushroom farming.

By 2015, Pushpa had trained over 20,000 women, empowering them to become entrepreneurs. Her workshops reached neighbouring districts and even the inmates of Darbhanga’s central jail.

To tackle mushrooms’ short shelf-life, Pushpa started processing them into pickles, powders, biscuits, and samosas. “Rather than letting them perish, we dry them to make mushroom powder,” she explains.

Pushpa earns Rs 2 lakh annually (as of 2021), with her husband and son helping with the business. Her son, studying horticulture, aims to expand the family’s mushroom farming business.

Pushpa aims to empower more women through mushroom farming. “The women in our region do not seek jobs and are often confined to the boundaries of their homes. But mushroom farming makes them entrepreneurs and develops their personality,” she says.