In the past decade, an inexplicable number of young urban agripreneurs have made an unanticipated switch in their careers, by leaving lucrative corporate jobs to set up their own mushroom farms, and for good reason with the help of various mushroom farming courses. The demand for mushrooms in both final markets (i.e., by end consumers) as well as in the intermediate market (i.e., restaurants, FMCG manufacturers, pharmaceutical giants, etc.). The growing demand is aided by the fact that mushroom farming is a spectrum when it comes to the difficulty of growing, and some varieties (such as milky mushrooms and button mushrooms) are extremely forgiving, allowing a sizable margin of error to first-time entrepreneurs or agripreneurs.
Given the positive relationship between the growing demand and supply of mushrooms in the market, many governmental organizations, as well as private players, have started to capture the mushroom farming training space and as a result, we’ve been seeing a rising number of promising training options that are sure to get a prospective mushroom farmer started with at that they need to learn. We’ve curated a list of five mushroom farming courses that you can explore on your path to becoming a commercial or hobbyist mushroom farmer.
Indian Institute of Horticulture Research Courses, Bengaluru
If you are looking for on-site mushroom farming course and allied technology training in the Bengaluru region, you should look no further than the Indian Institute of Horticulture research. The range of courses available is vast and covers many phases of the mushroom farming lifecycle, including spawning, RTF bad incubation, etc.
Additionally, IIHR also assists with space and technology support at nominal prices in addition to mentorship from experts and the community. You can check out their website to know more about the program and enroll if you are looking for something hands-on. The major drawback, however, is that these pieces of training happen only at their campus and are thereby not location agnostic. You’re in luck if you are placed in Bengaluru!
Ecol Agri Biz (A unit of Ecolagro Venture Private Limited), Lucknow
Run by one of the star suppliers as listed on Indiamart, a 2-day sprint at the mushroom farm is carried out by one of the biggest cultivators of mushrooms in Lucknow wherein you get adequate face-time with the trainer and get your queries resolved. Located in Indra Nagar in Lucknow, this mushroom farming course training is carried out on a functioning commercial farm and is suitable for those who wish to learn by observing and immersing themselves in the real farm environment. Again, this is offline training, so you need to be present in Lucknow to be able to take advantage of this offering.
Mushroom Farming Course by Rocket Skills, Pan-India (online)
Given that the need for learning mushroom farming far surpasses what geographical boundaries allow in terms of offline training, Rocket Skills, an MSME Edu-tech platform came out with over a dozen agriculture small business courses including biofloc fish farming, cattle rearing, hydroponics farming, and even mushroom farming. The courses are anywhere between 4-8 weeks in duration and provide a healthy mix of pre-recorded videos, demonstrations, and live webinars/ Q&A sessions with experts. Further, the participants are added to a chat group which makes peer-to-peer connections stronger and ultimately leads to the fostering of a vibrant entrepreneurial community.
The best part about pursuing these online courses is that they can be accessed from anywhere at any time in the day and even if the learners miss the live webinars, the webinars are recorded and provided to learners to watch later. The course content remains on the app for the learners to view forever, i.e., there is no expiry date as to the access.
Institute of Horticulture Technology, Greater Noida
This option for Mushroom farming course, is perhaps the most comprehensive course which runs for a duration of 6 months and anyone who has completed their education till 10th standard is eligible to apply for this course. The contents of the course are pretty standard and include Mushroom culture spawn production and spawning, making and casing beds, growing conditions for mushrooms, pests/ diseases and growing mushrooms outside, harvesting/ storing and using mushrooms, and marketing of mushrooms. The institute identifies nutritional security as one of its missions and strives to create a self-sustaining ecosystem in the country to meet the growing food requirements of the fast-growing population of India.
Haryana Agro Industries Corporation, Haryana
HAIC has set up a Mushroom Research & Development Project at Murthal (Sonepat) in Haryana under the HAIC Agro Research & Development Center. This project aims to execute and implement agro-based projects which are directly useful for farmers and entrepreneurs of Haryana. They have the training, testing, and consultancy modules as part of their offering portfolio, and they also offer infrastructural and allied support to budding entrepreneurs in Haryana. This mushroom farming courses range from a duration of 10 days to 2 months and the courses are rather nominally priced. This is as close as it gets to hand-holding and is highly recommended for those who are situated in this area.
Additionally, we recommend that if you’re opting for a short-term offline course (anything less than 10 days), do assist that learning with some sort of detailed, slightly longer-term material – be it self-modulated or an online mushroom farming course, whatever suits you. It takes a certain amount of deep-dive and carefully curated repetition to get a hang of things, such that you can make it your career. We wish you the best of luck in your mushroom farming journey and hope that you’ll find the success you’re aiming for!
