Believe it or not, there is a woman who makes sure that you have mushrooms in your favourite pasta

Representational image. Mushroom farming has helped women in Nalanada empower themselves socially and financially.

Pasta! The word can make anyone’s mouth salivate. And any good pasta has to have mushrooms in it, isn’t it? While we chew on mushrooms, this woman from Nalanda, Bihar changed her life with this vegetable.

Meet Anita Devi, the ‘mushroom lady’

Mushroom is known as ‘gobar chatta’ in the local language in Bihar. Anita’s attempt to grow mushrooms was seen as a matter of ridicule. But once they saw her success, hundreds of women in Anantpur and 10 neighboring villages of Bihar also followed in her footsteps. And they are women who can now easily support themselves and their family, without having to be dependent on their husbands or families for money.

But how did it all happen?

Anita Devi is a graduate in home science graduate who started mushroom farming in 2010 after training at Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agriculture University in Samastipur, Bihar, and GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in Uttarakhand. She wanted to earn money. Her situation was desperate.

Anita’s husband was struggling to make ends meet. Anita and Sanjay have two sons and a daughter. And a garment shop which was suffering major losses. Anita approached the Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Nalanada. The officials there advised Anita to grow mushrooms.

Anita braved all the ridicule that the villagers showered on her to be known as the Mushroom Lady of Nalanda. In 2012, her Anantpur village was declared a Mushroom Village by the state agriculture department.

A few years ago, Anita Devi started the Madhopur Farmers Producers Company, which she runs out of her newly-built house, to involve more women from neighboring villages in organic mushroom cultivation. 250 women currently attached with her company. Her target is 500 women by the end of next year.

Anita Devi’s monthly income is over Rs 25,000. The average daily production of oyster mushroom from Anita Devi’s center is 15 kg-20 kg, which is sold for Rs 80 to wholesalers and Rs 120 to retailers. She grows oyster and milky white mushrooms, both of which can in grown in agricultural waste.

Women inspired by Anita have made their lives successful. Maya Devi has made an engineer of her son while Rita Devi became entirely self-sufficient.

Anita Devi’s husband now has a garment shop in Madhopur. Anita and Sanjay’s two sons are studying horticulture and the only daughter is pursuing a B.Ed. From a woman who everyone made fun of, she has provided livelihood for a lot of women.

Woh sikander hi doston kehlata hai, haari baazi ko jeetna jisse aata hai. Isn’t it?