East Java Tourism News

Mushrooms make life better for Pasuruan villagers

June 29th, 2007

Mushrooms might be useless fungi to some — but not to residents of Bulukandang village, Prigen district in Pasuruan regency, East Java.

A village resident, Kaiman, 47, has been able to rebound from economic hardship through cultivating mushrooms.

The father of two has become a successful mushroom farmer and now employs 10 people.

“Mushrooms have really changed my life for the better,” he told The Jakarta Post.

Kaiman’s interest in mushrooms began when financial conditions worsened in 2005 and he could no longer support his family from his earnings as a truck driver, due to a severe drop in the number of customers.

“I had to change course after working as a truck driver for 15 years. That really confused me,” he said.

A friend from Blitar, East Java, asked him to cultivate mushrooms. He was hesitant at first, but decided to give it a go.

He approached a friend in Wonosobo, Central Java, to learn more about mushroom cultivation.

“I stayed in Blitar and Wonosobo for several weeks to learn how to grow mushrooms, but still felt I didn’t know enough.”

He failed every time he tried to grow mushrooms back home, but was determined to keep trying.

He took out a Rp 10 million (US$1,100) loan from a bank, handing over his vehicle ownership documents as collateral. He used Rp 6 million to buy equipment, including a sterilization device and plastic bags, and built a kumbung, or shed made of bamboo walls. He used the rest of the loan to buy other materials needed to grow mushrooms.

“After three months, the harvest was just enough to put food on the table and repay the loan installments.”

Luck, however, was on Kaiman’s side. After six months his harvests increased. He received an order for 10,000 bags of baklok, or growing medium, but had to turn it down because he could only produce 1,000.

His business has thrived ever since. In 2006, he was picked as a trainer to teach Bulukandang residents how to cultivate mushrooms. Now 40 families from the village are involved in growing mushrooms.

The Sampoerna Foundation helped set up a course and provided assistance in the form of 1,000 bags of baklok worth Rp 30 million, distributed to 20 families, payable on a 50:50 profit-share basis.

“Nearly all mushroom farmers in Bulukandang are working together to cultivate and market mushrooms,” said Kaiman, who now owns two 20×70 meter kumbung and enjoys a net profit of Rp 7.5 million per month.

Each kumbung is divided into two rooms; one is used to germinate spores, while a dark room is used to grow the mushrooms. The whole process — from spore to harvest — takes approximately 45 days.

Kaiman, who represents mushroom farmers in Bulukambang, hopes the government will provide soft loans to boost production in order to meet the growing demand for mushrooms.

“We have had to turn down weekly export orders of 500 kg of mushrooms to Taiwan and China due to limited capital.”

Bulukandang mushrooms are currently only being distributed to places near Pasuruan, including Surabaya, Malang and Mojokerto.

ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Pasuruan

Entry Filed under: East Java News