Bhubaneswar: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd (DCBL), a subsidiary of Dalmia Bharat Ltd, is aiming to provide ‘jeevika’ (livelihood) to 1 million rural women in Odisha through enterprise development progamme in mushroom cultivation.
Mushroom farming, a low investment and profitable agri-business model, can be easily adopted by impoverished women for generating sustainable income and become self-reliant. Dalmia Cement is facilitating training programme for Self Help Group (SHG) women in communities surrounding its plants in Cuttack, Rajgangpur and Lanjiberna Mines.
Through this programme, women will be able to earn an additional income of Rs 5000 per month through establishment of mushroom cultivation units.
Dalmia Cement’s Kapilash Cement Manufacturing Works (KCMW) in Cuttack witnessed 130 SHG members selling around 300 kg mushroom in local markets to earn profits of Rs 75,000 in the last 7 months.
In Rajgangpur, 140 women from 17 villages have benefited through this programme.
Two types of mushrooms are grown locally and available in markets for sale — paddy straw and Oyster mushrooms.
Preparing one bed of mushroom costs around Rs 40 to 50 and from each bed, profits of up to Rs 300 can be earned.
These mushrooms can be grown for 10 months in a year.
Dalmia Cement provides raw materials and market linkage support to all SHG women to build their own cultivation enterprises.
“With the economy bouncing back gradually post COVID, we noticed a rise in demand for mushrooms in local markets. We 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. We hope in the coming months we can continue to encourage more women to build their own units and become financially independent,” said Bhavesh Wala, Deputy Executive Director, DCBL and Unit Head-KCMW.
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