Prakash Semwal and Pawan Rawat, childhood friends from Mussoorie are an example of how casually ‘surfing the net’ can throw up some unexpected positive results.
The duo has successfully become the town’s first Cordyceps Militaris Mushroom growers.
Not even a year old and the friends are reaping benefits of their first produce grown from hard work, toil and sweat. From a rented 15 x 30 room fitted with 2500 jars of Cordyceps Militaris, they have managed to get five to six kilograms of the fungi within a year.
Cordyceps is in great demand as it is considered a potential harbour of bio-metabolites for herbal drugs and is considered a natural energy as well as a powerful immune booster, rich in medicinal values.
Prakash Semwal tells us, “While surfing the net we came upon these Mushrooms and their health benefits. The weather in Mussoorie is conducive for their growth so we decided to grow them instead of the more commonly grown exotic variety.”
With an initial investment of 7-8 lakhs the duo used technology to the optimum. Fitting the unit with an Air Conditioner, Humidifier, Drier and CCTV cameras to keep an eye on their unit in their absence.
Pawan Rawat highlights the fact that the mushroom can fetch a lakh for every kilogram sold and once dried Cordyceps can be taken as “tea or made into powder and used in bakery products for consumption, other than medicine alone.”
Both Pawan and Prakash are of the view that being a tourist-town the hotels in Mussoorie could benefit from their yield by serving tourists Cordycep tea and bakery delights made from these medicinal mushrooms.
A larger unit and growing more jars of Cordyceps militaris so that this expensive yet beneficial produce is made easily available to the layman who too can benefit from its medicinal value, is what the friends are aiming for in the near future.
