While migration of people from rural mountainous regions remains a serious problem in Uttarakhand, there are some people who have set an example for others by working hard to achieve a better life for themselves and others in the mountainous regions. One such person is Govind Singh Pangti from Purna village in Chamoli who cultivates mushroom, earns a decent amount from it and also provides employment to other villagers.
Pangti who has been cultivating mushrooms for about eight years now shared details of his experience with this correspondent. He said, “Being the member of a scheduled tribe I used to be a social activist till 2010. I then happened to come across the government initiative of mushroom scheme in Nainital. This elicited my interest and I learned how to cultivate mushroom. This experience happened to change my way of thinking and I decided to become a full-time farmer.”
Pangti now cultivates mushrooms in a 91 square metres hall in his village. Apart from cultivation, he also imparts training and provides employment opportunities to the people of his village. He elaborated, “I and my wife train unemployed men and women of the village in mushroom cultivation. They learn while working for us and also earn decent wages in the process. Presently there are about 20 women from the village who are working actively with us. Apart from them, we also have the youth of the village who look after the marketing of the mushrooms we cultivate. Before I took up full-time cultivation, I used to have a comparatively low income which was not enough for me to even fulfil all the requirements of my family. But now we sell about 20 quintals of mushroom and earn up to Rs 25,000 per quintal. The income varies with the quantity of the mushroom we are able to produce. However, we never face loss as there is a huge demand for mushrooms. At times we are not able to meet the demand for mushrooms with our production alone.”
Regarding the issues he faces while carrying on with his cultivation activity, he said that though the government has provided considerable assistance, there are still issues which need to be addressed effectively. He said, “The government provides considerable assistane to us. We get seeds free of cost and compost with a subsidy of 50 per cent but our village is quite far from the main area which makes it very difficult to access new equipment. It would be great if the government can help us with this,” he said.
Pangti further said, “I was felicitated by the government in 2015 for commendable work in farming. From my experience I believe that there is considerable scope in farming. People should try to do it more. If agriculture is revived in the state then I believe there will be hardly anyone left unemployed in Uttarakhand,”he opined.