This Haryana Lady, an Assistant Professor, Made a Successful Mushroom Business, Generating a ₹12 Lack Revenue, And Producing 10 tons of Mushroom Per Month.

India continuously leans toward producing entrepreneurs, mostly in rural areas lacking awareness. This statement proves a Haryana lady named Soniya Dahiya, who was an Assistant Professor. Her passion for contributing to society led her to pave for herself. With all this in mind, professors Soniya Dahiya, and Vijay Dahiya founded Doctor Dahiya Mushroom Farm in 2020.

This initiative led them to generate ₹12 Lakh revenue, 10 tons of mushroom per month, and empower dozens of village ladies providing them jobs as well as valuable skills. Let’s understand how they got started, what challenges they faced, how they are working now and what is future of farming business like this.

Backgroud Of Soniya Dahiya, and Her Husband.

Soniya Dahiya and her husband Vijay Dahiya, are founders of the Doctor Dahiya Mushroom Farm. Soniya Dahiya, mastermind of this business is an assistant professor at Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology at Sonipat. She did her Master’s in Biochemistry and completed her PhD in Biotechnology.

Her husband, Vijay Dahiya, the left wing of the business and power of Soniya Dahiya, is an Associate Mathematics Professor at Maharaja Surajmal Institute in Delhi. He supported Soniya Dahiya on every step, where a man get disheartened, or quits due to lack of support.

How They Get Started With Mushroom Farming.

Soniya Dahiya and Vijay Dahiya both professors were locked in their house due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as nationwide lockdown was imposed. Due to this lockdown, Soniya Dahiya and Vijay Dahiya started to work from home and conduct virtual classes. Working at home, left him with a lot of time. So, they thought to invest this time in something meaningful.

So, farming ventures and mushrooms seemed them good options to start with, Soniya Dahiya said according to a Startuppedia report. So what? They started their relentless research. They used sources like Google, and YouTube to gather information, spending hours daily to understand the mushroom farming basics, with proper notes.

With all this extensive research, they concluded, that Sonia Dahiya and Vijay Dahiya launched The Doctor Dahiya Mushroom Farm in 2020, Initially, investvesting ₹40 lakhs both from their savings and managing for a loan.

Challenges in Front of Them.

The biggest challenge was to handle the pressure of Family and friends for both of them. “You have a well-paying stable career and your kids are doing well. Why do you want an extra headache?” This was the taunt, they had to face from their surroundings while starting with their farming business.

But they get started with two rooms. These two growing rooms weren’t producing sufficient mushrooms to get profitability. Beyond this, they weren’t yielding the expected results from the compost they were purchasing from the market.

To defeat this challenge, entrepreneurs decided to set up a compost unit on their own, for cost-cutting and yield good results with quality compost. To bring this imagination to reality, it cost them again ₹20 lakh.

Business Making ₹12 Lakh Per Month.

All these challenges are natural when one paves a unique path for himself. So they did what was possible, and by 2022, Soniya and Vijay Dahiya had set up two more growing rooms for mushrooms and expanded significantly.

After all these trials and errors, and then squeezing lessons from them, they started flourishing and leading the business toward profitability. Presently, Soniya and Dahiya’s farming venture produces close to 10 tonnes (10,000 kg) of mushrooms every single month.

Their business makes them a revenue of around ₹9 Lakh to ₹12 Lakh every single month while providing them a net profit of around ₹80,000 to ₹2 Lakhs every single month.

Their success doesn’t end only on currency earned, the most important is to employ 10th of the women and the other 15 on a contractual level, earning a daily wage, joining all these women with humble work, who used to work as a laborer in the fields.

Their Steps to Empower Other Passionates.

To empower and help other farming entrepreneurs and students, Soniya and Vijay Dahiya provide regular mushroom training and consultancy services. These programs cover every aspect of butter mushroom farming like spawn procurement, cultivation process, and compost methodology.

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