PARIT BUNTAR, Sept 16 — A fisherman’s perseverance in wanting to get out of poverty has paid off after venturing into mushroom cultivation at his house in Kampung Raja Bashah Kuala Kurau since July.
Mohd Radzi Said, 51, said he ventured into mushroom cultivation after being exposed to the iMistroom system (smart mushroom house) introduced by a senior lecturer at the School of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Penang, Dr Hamid Yusoff.
“With a capital of RM24,000 through the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawals through i-Lestari and i-Sinar, I made my own mushroom house with an area of 37-feet (11.3 metres) x 18-feet (5.5 metres) next to my residence.
“The Agriculture Department also donated 2,000 pieces of mushrooms and crop racks and I also received assistance from non-governmental organisation (NGO) Sahabat Alam Lestari Parit Buntar and the SIG Admech UiTM Penang research group.
“I started by planting two types of mushrooms, grey oyster mushrooms and white oyster mushrooms, through the IMistroom method and now have 6,000 pieces of mushrooms of both variants,” he told the media at his residence in Kampung Raja Bashah Kuala Kurau, near here, today.
According to him, the crop was marketed using social media platforms and via online in addition to the support of family members, adding that within three months, the results were very encouraging because “this mushroom is in high demand”.
“The mushroom harvest is 15 kilogrammes (kg) a day and I market it at an average price of RM12 per kg at the Kuala Kurau, Parit Buntar and Bagan Serai markets. I intend to expand this project by turning the mushrooms into various mushroom-based products in the future, such as mushroom chips,” said Mohd Radzi, who managed to earn RM4,200 through mushroom sales in the first month.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency