生徒たちが盛り上げる！マニプール発、学校収益事業のためのきのこ栽培プロジェクト！

Mushroom cultivation project as income genetation

2024/10/12 07:56

Help us to implement income generation project for our school!!

[Crowd Funding for the future of Manipur]

Hi all! I am Eri Oki currently living in Manipur, India and originally from Japan. 

Manipur is one of the Northeast states of India. In 2017 I got married to my husband who belongs to Rongmei Naga tribe from Manipur. I have been staying in the rural Manipur since then, and by implementing income generation projects, I have been trying to motivate the rural people to be self-sufficient and independent no matter what comes in the future. This article will introduce the crowd funding project which I would implement form 2025. 

[How could the rural India be developed?]

Recently, India has experienced the rapid growth in Gross Domestic Products (GDP). Metropolitan cities such as Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, etc. have witnessed increase in the middle class population with the strong purchasing power. Nonetheless, the rural India is still less-developed, with the incompetent of services including medial care, education and transportation. Manipur with its problems of tribal conflicts and mountainous geographic characteristics prone to have natural disaster, is known as one of the less-developed states among other states in India. However, the state railway construction having been taken place for the past decade, is seen to bring out much more change to the state. The large number of peoples and goods would be transported from place to place without hassle and with the time saving trains. Could the rural area of Manipur not left behind by the development? The answer to this question is; the rural areas have to utilise benefits of development. Otherwise, people would just choose to stay in cities away from inconvenient rural villages, leading to the population eruption in the cities and devastating rural areas.  

[Manipur burning – ethnic conflict –]

Although Manipur is known for its rich cultural diversity, natural scenic beauty and exotic wild life with the rich flora and fauna, the recent ethnic conflict between Meitei and Kuk tribe is something we cannot bear to see. 

The two tribes has been fighting since the last year while the Kukis are opposed to the Manipur High court order granting the majority Meitei community certain benefits. The state capital city Imphal witnessed much violence and ethnic discrimination towards vulnerable people such as women, children and elders.  

[Mushroom cultivation as an income generation project]

Currently, I am residing in the private school called “PREACH Heritage Academy” located in Chakpikarong village, Chandel district of Manipur, which is 76 km south away from Imphal. 

Due to the social instability caused by the violence, parents found it difficult to pay for their children’s hostel fees and other expenses. So the school has also suffered from lack of financial resources, resulting to inability to pay for the teachers’ salary and to provide enough foods for hostellers. Therefore, my husband and I decided to launch the income generation project by growing mushroom and selling it in the village bazzar. 

A great number of different kinds of mushroom are grown locally in the deep forest in Manipur, but it is limited to the season with modest temperature and sufficient water resources. In fact, we can find all the necessary ingredients from preparing mushroom house to making mushroom substrates in the village of Chakpikarong. Moreover, my husband has done the training on mushroom culture in the past, and has experiences in the mushroom cultivation too. For the purpose of producing a large amount of mushrooms, we need labour. Therefore, school students will be also involved in the whole process in the mushroom cultivation. We believe that will help them to get confidence as well. We have human resources and necessary materials to start the mushroom income generation project, but we still lack the capital. SO please everyone donate for the project! Thanks for reading!