INDIA A visit to Goa
Much to my wife’s chagrin during a recent holiday to India, I seeked out and found a mushroom farm to visit. This has been so common- place over the years that Pam just shrugs her shoulders, exhales in exasperation, and finds some meaningful thing to do during my day
away. I visited the farm of Dr Kurade. By Ray Samp
I Sangam Kurade of Zuari Foods and Farm.
n this case it was actually two farms, M/s. Zuari Foods and Farm P. Ltd., and M/s Tropical Mushrooms P. Ltd. They are located in the former Portuguese colony
and current Indian state of Goa on the west coast of India.
At 24 years old, the farm was said to be one of the oldest continuously operated farms in India. The farm has grown continuously over those 24 years to the point where it now produces ~100 metric tons of white button mushrooms per week in its two facilities, Tropical Mushrooms in Ponda and Zuari Foods and Farm in Canacona. The farm is owned and operated by Dr. Sangam A. Kurade a PhD. graduate of the University of Tennessee (USA) in Food Science. His interest in food production led him to a venture in Agaricus mushroom production in 1992 and there has been no looking back.
Self made
The farm is what I believe to be the correct type of farm for the business/labor/sales environ- ment in which it exists. That environment is one of high capital costs (or lack of available capital), low operating cost, plentiful labor, and a small, but virgin market. Dr. Kurade designed and built the farm himself, gleaning information from literature and various farm visits using local raw materials and contractors. As such he started very inexpensively, expanded consistently and cheaply, and built the farm and the market from the ground up.
The compost raw materials consist mainly of sugar cane bagasse along with some rice straw, poultry manure, and gypsum.
34 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
Doing the job Culturally the operation is self-designed bulk phase I and phase II, which then processes the compost in bags. The compost raw materials consist mainly of sugar cane bagasse along with some rice straw, poultry manure, and gypsum.
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