: At 66 She Started a Mushroom Farming Biz; 30 Yrs Later Her Sons Carry On Her Legacy #IndiaNEWS #Agriculture In 1989, 66-year-old Harjinder Kaur Randhawa began cultivating mushrooms as a hobby in her

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At 66 She Started a Mushroom Farming Biz; 30 Yrs Later Her Sons Carry On Her Legacy #IndiaNEWS #Agriculture
In 1989, 66-year-old Harjinder Kaur Randhawa began cultivating mushrooms as a hobby in her courtyard, in Dhardeo village of Amritsar district of Punjab, to support the family income. More than 30 years down the line, three of her sons have successfully built a niche brand synonymous with premium mushroom produce and processed foods in their neighbourhood.
Trained at the Directorate of Mushroom Research in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, Mandeep Singh (41) and his brothers grow as many as 12 varieties of mushroom at Randhawa Mushroom Farm on the Batala-Jalandhar Highway in Dhardeo. Not only do the premises have air-conditioned rooms to ensure all-year-round production, they also have a wholesale unit with cooling facilities for storing up to eight quintals of the vegetable, in addition to a retail outlet.
“Be it growing mushrooms or selling them, the role of each brother is different. My elder brother, Manjeet Singh, handles primary production duties, while my younger brother, Harpreet Singh, handles spawn-production and processing. I oversee operations concerning marketing, banking, and media. Our mother supervises the workers on the farm. Another of our brothers is based in Australia and grows sugarcane and bananas, but he, too, lends us a helping hand whenever he’s here,� Mandeep tells The Better India.
Different species such as button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms (pink, white, yellow and brown) and milky mushrooms are grown at their farm. The mushrooms are also used for in-house production of pickles, biscuits, papad and namkeen, which are processed at the plant and canned by a third-party company.
Notably, Mandeep received an award from the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) in 2017 for his significant contribution in the field of mushroom diversification.
‘No one can do this work better than women’

Up until last year, Randhawa Mushroom Farm had a hundred employees, of which 98 per cent were women, says Mandeep.
“Currently, we have around 60 workers, of which only four are men. This is because cultivation of mushrooms can be very challenging and the smallest details require special attention. We believe that no one can do this work better than women and that’s why they’re given priority in hiring decisions,� he adds.
Mandeep explains, “While my father worked as a Punjab Police officer, my mother used to sell sweaters she weaved herself. Gradually, the demand for readymade sweaters increased in the market and my mother stopped her business. After consulting the Punjab Agricultural University, she decided to start cultivating mushrooms on a very small scale. At the time, however, the vegetable was not very popular and it was very difficult to sell it in the market.

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