Assistant professor Sonia Dahiya established the successful “Doctor Dahiya Mushroom Farm” in 2020. She created a high-tech farm that produces 10 tonnes per month while giving rural women new possibilities and stable incomes by fusing her expertise in biotechnology with her enthusiasm for community empowerment.
Prior to the creation of “Doctor Dahiya Mushroom Farm,” Sonia spent endless hours on the internet learning from research publications. She learned by trial and error, building two growing rooms and hiring local staff with an initial expenditure of Rs 40 lakh.
“We cultivate button mushrooms in a sophisticated, regulated setting. This enables us to manufacture all year long, an endeavor that is significantly aided by my biotechnology background. One batch takes us two months to prepare. The native of Sonipat claims that every agricultural cycle is a labor of love.
By 2022, she was able to produce an astounding 10 tonnes of mushrooms per month thanks to the expansion of her concept to include two more growing rooms. As she serves an expanding clientele that includes local caterers and sellers at Delhi’s Azadpur Mandi, her firm is now developing and generating a monthly revenue of Rs 9 lakh with a net income of Rs 1 lakh.
Conditions for mushroom cultivation
Sonia’s journey has not been without its obstacles. Akin to caring for a newborn, she says, every challenge highlighted the intricacies of mushroom cultivation, from failed compost batches to power outages that endangered fragile mushroom crops.
Poor quality market-bought compost and irregular production cycles were early setbacks that forced her to come up with better solutions. Recognising the need for more control, she decided to establish her own compost unit — a turning point that improved both efficiency and production quality.
“Farming mushrooms is more complicated than it seems,” she adds. “We must carefully regulate carbon dioxide and oxygen levels. We don’t open the windows for the first forty days of the vegetative period. Once mushrooms begin to develop on the bags, they need oxygen, so we open the windows for ventilation.”
Controlling the temperature is similarly important, according to Sonia. Reversing the damage with air conditioning becomes difficult if a power outage raises the bags’ temperature to 30 degrees Celsius. We need to maintain a consistent temperature between 23 and 25 degrees for optimal growth,” she shares.
