History of Mushroom Cultivation in Bangladesh

There is a huge prospect of mushroom cultivation in Bangladesh. It can play an important role in eradicating malnutrition, one of the main problems of the people, and preventing diseases. By mushroom cultivation, it is possible to alleviate poverty and providing employment for educated unemployment, youths, adolescents and specially women. The amount of agricultural land is decreasing day by day. But the population is going up. So is the demand for food. As mushroom do not require land, fertilizer and pesticide for cultivation rather a great scope for vertical expansion. So, one can have started mushroom cultivation with a little amount of capital and labour. The poor and the landless people can easily cultivate mushroom and make them self-sufficient. Besides, the industrialist can set up mushroom industry for large scale production. They can export mushroom and can earn a lot of foreign currency every year.

History of mushroom cultivation is not a old thing in respect of Bangladesh. Mushroom cultivation was started Bangladesh in 80's. In Bangladesh, several years ago common Bangladeshi people was not habituated to eat mushroom except people from Chittagong Hill Track where you can find naturally grown mushroom and they eat mushroom from the forest traditionally. Recently a group of people very much interested to grow mushroom and increased the consumption of mushroom by common people.

Mushroom cultivation began in Bangladesh at Horticulture Centre, Sobhanbagh, Savar, Dhaka with the assistance of Japan Overseas Cooperative Volunteers (JOCV) ) under JICA. Mr Azizul Hoque, Agricultural Advisor of Ministry of Agriculture visited Thailand in 1976 and saw Thai people cultivating straw mushroom at their residence. He got an idea that climate condition of Bangladesh can be favorable for mushroom cultivation and seed production can be possibly done in Bangladesh. Afterwards, He brought seeds of straw mushroom to Bangladesh and handed over to Mr Shahidul Islam, Executive Director of Horticulture Development Board that was established in 1973-74 under the Directorate of Agriculture. In 1979 Mr Shahidul Islam wrote an official letter to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), requesting for mushroom development in Bangladesh. In 1981-83 Mr Nakano, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer (JOCV) under JICA was dispatched to Bangladesh for Mushroom cultivation and started officially mushroom cultivation for the first time in Bangladesh at Horticulture Centre, Sobhanbagh, Savar under Horticulture Development Board (HDB). He introduced some Japanese technique on mushroom cultivation for straw mushroom at this stage. In this period, a mushroom cultivation laboratory was established at small scale by the leadership of Mr Nakano with some essential instruments for mushroom spawn production.

In June 1982, Mr AbdurRaquib, Assistant Horticulturist came to the centre and became counterpart for Mr Nakano.

In June 1984, Mr Abdur Raquib went to Japan to study mushroom cultivation technique at research station in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan for 10 months.
As a successor of Mr Nakano, another JOCV (Mr Kakizaki) came to Bangladesh and stayed till October1986. He introduced oyster mushroom for the first time in Bangladesh and the laboratory was further developed in 1984 at the cost of JICA about 2-3 lakh BDT. After successful establishment of the laboratory, it was handed over to Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture from Japanese Ambassador in 1985.

Mr Saleh Ahmed came as an assistant horticulturist after Mr Abdur on 1st November 1986. Then 15th November 1986, a successor of Mr Kakizaki (Mr Kojima) was dispatched to the centre and continued mushroom cultivation. In 1987 FAO funded for mushroom improvement and two mushroom expert involved like Dr Fadiriko and Dr Majioriana, who trained up the officer's as well as workers of Sobhanbagh horticulture centre.

In this period, The Bangladesh Mushroom Cultivation Pilot Project (1988-1990) was started jointly by Government of Bangladesh (GoB) and JICA. The budget was 75 lakh BDT from JICA and 0.25 lakh BDT from GoB. Under this project, modern equipment for mushroom cultivation was introduced and Mr Kakizaki trained officials of the centre as an expert for the project. The project was successfully completed and evaluated by Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), Ministry of Planning with good remarks. Mr Saleh Ahmed went to Japan in 1991 to learn about mushroom cultivation at research station in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan for 8 months. In 1997-1998 government was started a project in Rangamati and the budget was 7.5 lakh BDT from GoB.

Mushroom cultivation slowed down in 1990 following withdrawal of JICA's support.  After 2002, the Government taken initiatives and gave priority on mushroom development and approved a development project named "Mushroom Centre Development Project (2003-2006). This project was successfully completed through its hilarious outcome in making awareness about mushroom and motivated people to cultivate as well as intake mushroom and mushroom based products. In connection of this success, the government introduced another investment project named "Mushroom Development Project (2006-2009)"for making mushroom popular among the people. In that period technologies were being disseminated to the cultivars, consumers and entrepreneurs through different training program, publicity in electronic and print media, publications and motivational program. This project has been performing its activities the six (06) sub centres situated in six districts of the country. 

Another project named "Strengthening Mushroom Development Project (2009-2013)"funded by Japan Debt Cancellation Fund (JDCF) has been performing its activities through National Mushroom Development and Extension Centre (NAMDEC) and the sixteen (16) sub centres situated in different districts of the country. The aims of this project are to rapidly extension of the acquired technology through the all kinds of people of the country for creating demand and awareness about different uses of mushroom. Different research works are being conducted under the project in addition to providing training on mushroom cultivation. In 2013 Jul to 2015 June Mushroom Development and Extension Programme was started by Government of Bangladesh (GoB) and the budget was 6.44 lakh BDT. After completion of programme July 2015 Mushroom Development Institute was established under Horticulture wing of DAE. The institute works on mushroom research and extension in whole Bangladesh.

In our country officers who are involved in mushroom research and extension activities as an office head( in-charge) MrAbdurRokib (1982-1986), MrSaleh Ahmed(1986-1990), MrAbul Basher Bhuiyan(1992-95), MrMaidur Rahman(1995-2000), MrZahidur Rahman (2000-2001), Mr Saiful Islam Patowary (2001), MrShekh Md Ruhul Amin (2002-2009), Dr Nirod Chandra Sarker(2012-2021), Dr Akhter Jahan Kakon(2021-) and Ferdaus Ahmed.

Major activities after 90's:

2003-2006 --- Mushroom Centre Development Project

2006-2009 --- Mushroom Development Project

2009-2013 --- Strengthening Mushroom Development Project (SMDP)

2013-2015 --- Mushroom Development and Extension Programme

July 2015 --- Mushroom Development Institute was established under Horticulture wing of DAE.

Current --- Project proposal for "Improvement of Nutrition and Reduction of Poverty through Mushroom Cultivation" has been submitted to GoB for approval.

After over 40 years of mushroom cultivation, gradually it has been accepted by people for production as well as consumption although it was not culturally acceptable for local Bengal people as "Banger Chata (Frog's umbrella). Now more than one lakh farmers are engaged in mushroom production and they produce approximately 40,000 MT of cultured mushroom in 2020 as per statistics from Mushroom Development Institute.

Mushroom, a nutrient-dense versatile food can share some of the benefits of fruits and vegetable and complement almost any everyday meal. Mushroom cultivation also requires low technology, low investment and can be grown in very little space. As it is not labour intensive, women can be employed in mushroom culture. Like booming dairy and poultry industries it is very much possible to transform mushroom into an industry. For that eliminating adverse prospective, mushroom will have to be made acceptable to the people. Due to culinary, nutritional and health benefits, the mushroom market is expected to grow as "a food, a tonic and a medicine". Besides effective steps need to be taken for its marketing.


Dr Akhter Jahan Kakon is a Chief Instructor of ATI, Saturia, Manikgonj