“I faced many challenges, but I never let them deter me. No matter how tough things got, I knew I could make it work. I just had to keep going,” says Pratibha Jha, 40, whose journey holds true the statement that with focused effort, anything is within reach.

Growing up in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, a 10-year-old Pratibha would often watch local farmers cultivate mushrooms. “I was always curious about how mushrooms grew,” she tells The Better India. “Something about it fascinated me, but I never thought it could be my livelihood one day.”

Her life took a sudden turn when her father passed away, and at the young age of 15, she was married off to an engineer from Bihar’s Darbhanga. After moving to her husband’s place in Mirzapur Hansi village, her interest in mushroom farming lingered, but the practicalities of starting a business seemed out of reach.

“When I spoke to people in my village about mushroom farming, they didn’t understand it at all,” she admits. Even her in-laws, who were “conservative and sceptical of women working outside the home”, could not see value in what she wanted to do.

But Pratibha was determined to follow her passion for mushroom cultivation. “I told my husband that I wanted to start mushroom farming. He admitted he didn’t know much about it either, but I expressed my desire to carve out my own identity beyond the traditional role of a housewife, and he wholeheartedly supported me,” she says.

Humble beginnings

With little knowledge and even fewer resources, Pratibha decided to shape her identity in this field. In 2015, she went to the Darbhanga Agriculture Department to inquire about training, but they directed her to Bihar Agricultural University (BAU), Sabor University, in Bhagalpur.

“I remember I saw an ad for mushroom farming training, but when I contacted them, they said that the course was over and I should try next year. So I waited,” she laughs, reflecting on the delays. Finally, in early 2016, she began her formal training, which opened her eyes to the potential of mushroom farming.

© The Better India