Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma, today, inaugurated the Shiitake Mushroom and Training Centre funded by Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Ministry of DoNER and Government of Meghalaya at Upper Shillong in the presence of Minister, Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Ampareen Lyngdoh.
Speaking during the occasion, Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma, said that the approach of the government has always been to take every section of the society on board as the state moves forward.
“The investments that we make and the developments that we create will be meaningless if different sections of the society cannot grow along and be a part of the growth story of Meghalaya,” he said.
He informed that in the last three years the state government has invested around 700 crores to create value chains and infrastructures for the farmers so that their farming and the products of their activities will be remunerative and economically attractive. “I have always believed that we don’t need to do new things but we need to help the farmers to make their farming better,” he said.
The Chief Minister also informed that with the establishment of the Shiitake Mushroom Production and Training Centre, the target is to help 1000 farmers. He also said that in a year three cycles of shiitake mushrooms can be farmed with income generation of about 1 lakh per cycle. “With a basic calculation we can derive that in just three years 117 crores revenue revenue will be earned by our farmers,” he said.
He further encouraged the farmers to take up shiitake mushroom farming as this activity would be only an additional farming as it requires less space for farming with only about 15 days of work per cycle which also requires only basic maintenance.
He added that the market for shiitake mushroom is already present and the state has potential to supply to the rest of the country while being self-sufficient in it. He further assured the farmers of all assistance from the government.
The project has been completed at the cost of Rs. 15.15 crore. The unit is located at Mushroom Development Centre, Upper Shillong. The project is being implemented in partnership with YATS Corporation Tokyo, a leading global producer of Shiitake Mushrooms.
As part of this initiative, market linkage through a buy-back mechanism has been put in place through Shillong Shiitake Products Company Ltd (SSPL), a joint venture between YATS Corporation and Hill Farmer’s Shiitake Mushroom Co-Op Society Ltd (HFSMC).
It may be mentioned that Rs. 62.37 crore has earmarked for Mushroom Mission for a period of five years. So far nearly 5000 farmers have been benefited from the programme. The promotion of Shiitake Mushroom has been envisage by the Department of Agriculture under the Mushroom Mission with three key pillars in focus – technology, markets and community.