How an Odisha professor is turning banana stems and cardboard into mushrooms

Sambalpur, Odisha: Discarded banana stems and cardboard are being turned into a low-cost mushroom-growing medium at Gangadhar Meher University, offering farmers a potential source of additional income.

Professor Susanta Kumar Das, a physics professor with an interest in agriculture, has developed and promoted the method. Banana stems are cut into small pieces, soaked in lime water for 24 hours and layered with cardboard and gram flour before mushroom spawn is added.