INDIA By Thorat Mahesh, mushroom consultant, and Mark den Ouden, trainer and consultant, Mushroom Signals
Manegrow Agro Product
Consultant Mark den Ouden worked at a Dalsem built mushroom farm in India in the 1990’s. Since then, many things have changed in India and on the farm, but not the labour intensity of the workflow. And there are more differences between the ‘Dutch’ system and the way Manegrow does things, as Mark finds out
M The main reason
to use bagasse for composting is
the much lower price, compared to wheat straw.
anegrow Agro Product is located in India and produces premium quality fruit and vegetables. The owner of the farm, Mr Umesh
Mane, operated a small mushroom farm prior to 2020, but noticed that the market for mushrooms in India was expanding. He wanted to ride the wave of this rapid growth and bought a farm that had not been used for 20 years in 2020. The timing was unfortunate due to the covid pandemic and the associated lockdowns so it was a huge challenge to renovate and make the farm suitable for production again. And to date the farm is still being expanded to meet the demand for mushrooms. Production is currently around 125 tons of mushrooms per week, grown on their own compost and casing soil, and achieved in just three years. Computer-controlled climate installations are not used on the farm, eve- rything is measured and controlled manually. The compost is pasteurised in tunnels. The tunnels are emptied by a tractor, and spawn is added to the compost by one of the few machines on the farm and bagged immediately. These bags are then transported to the farm. The farm currently employs around 750 people, 60 of whom are mana- gers.
Back to India The original farm was built in 1995-1996 and was one of the projects built by Dalsem - now Dutch Mushroom Projects - in India in the 1990s. When I - Mark- was still studying at the HAS university of applied sciences in Den Bosch, I worked at the farm while it was still being built. I performed research into the raw materials used for the casing and gained my first experience of working abroad. One of my objectives was to find out whether I liked working with other cultures. India was a wonderful place to test this out as practi- cally everyone there speaks English. However, there is a huge culture difference, and it was my first trip outside Europe. In January I returned to
30 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
India after more than 25 years. I noticed many changes, the presence of the same, ubiquitous fast-food chains like McDonald’s and Subway and therefore the availability of the same food on every continent. Back in the 1990s, the only thing that was the same was Coca Cola or Pepsi. Many aspects of cultures are becoming increasingly similar throughout the world, even though some government leaders in various countries might think otherwise. You cannot learn what a culture and a society are by talking about people - you can only gain that insight and knowledge by tal- king to and working with other people. And that was just what I was up to this time around.
Composting with bagasse Normally, compost is made mainly from wheat straw. This type of straw maintains a good struc- ture and can still be “softened’. Softening means removing the waxy layer from around the straw blades. This allows straw to absorb water easily and mycelium can grow in the straw. At Mane- grow, they have made a different choice. Thorat Mahesh has plenty of experience with bagasse. Bagasse, or sugar cane pulp, is a by-product of sugar cane production. In India, sugar cane is grown for the sugar production industry. The sugar cane is crushed to extract the sugary juice from the stalks. The pulp is the fibrous waste that remains after this process. It is supplied form the local region and is a hard material with a short structure. Wheat straw would also have been an option as a raw material, but there are two draw- backs: one is that wheat straw in India is always chopped really short. And, secondly and more importantly, is the price of the product. On aver- age throughout the year, the price of wheat straw is eight times higher than bagasse. The current blend consists of 70% bagasse, 20% soy or wheat straw and 10% of rice straw. It is turned, mixed and water is added manually. On day two, chicken manure and gypsum are added to the straw, and
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