Mushroom Development Foundation’s innovative experiments

Mushroom Development Foundation (MDF) is an NGO located in Assam. They promote mushroom cultivation to combat malnutrition by providing alternative farming techniques. Pranjal Barua is the co-founder of the organization and works for alternative farming and increasing community participation.

The ‘Kathfulla Haat’ is a market organized by MDF and provides a platform for farmers to market and distribute the mushrooms directly to buyers. The foundation works especially with the farmers of socially and economically marginalized communities. The communities are engaged on the basis of a detailed analysis of their socio-economic conditions.

MDF promotes women in farming and helps farmers financially. MDF’s innovative alternative farming has trained more than 100 farmers through workshops and 200 women farmers have benefitted from this. In the very first year of mushroom cultivation, female farmers did a business of more than Rs. 25 lakhs. An important achievement of the organization was the establishment of 125 collection and distribution centres to give better access to mushroom farmers to the market.