Odisha: DCBL to provide livelihood to one million rural woman in mushroom cultivation
Bhubaneswar, March 31: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd (DCBL), a subsidiary of Dalmia Bharat Ltd, has planned to provide livelihood support to 1 million rural women through an enterprise development programme in mushroom cultivation in Odisha.
Mushroom farming is a low investment and profitable agri-business model that can be easily adopted by impoverished women for generating sustainable income and being self-reliant.
Dalmia Cement is facilitating the training programme for Self Help Group (SHG) women in communities surrounding its plants in Cuttack, Rajgangpur and Lanjiberna Mines, enabling them to earn an additional income of Rs.5000 a month through establishment of mushroom cultivation units.
Two types of mushrooms are locally grown and available in the markets for sale – Paddy straw and Oyster mushrooms.
Preparing one bed of mushrooms costs around Rs.40 – Rs.50 and from each bed, the profits earned can be up to Rs.300. It is also eco-friendly as agricultural waste can be used as substrate for the mushroom beds.
These mushrooms can be grown for 10 months in a year and aids underprivileged women to earn well for supporting their families.
Dalmia Cement provides raw materials and market linkage support to all SHG women to build their own cultivation enterprises.
Deputy Executive Director, DCBL and Unit Head-KCMW Bhavesh Wala said, “With the economy bouncing back gradually post covid, we noticed a rise in demand for mushrooms in the local markets.
The company he said had identified this as a potential opportunity for sustainable income generation for marginalized women in surrounding communities. Many participants have benefitted from this programme and have built a reliable source of income for themselves, Wala said
Apart from mushroom farming, initiatives like Project Hastakala – handicraft production, spices and pickle making, flower and organic vegetable farming, terracotta products making have also been introduced by the company.
