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Monday, June 24, 2002
A mushroom here, a mushroom there
Dr. Janet Luis, who was in-charge of the mushroom production and marketing project, began doing the spadework for her part in the Benguet State University (BSU) proposal for Department of Science and Technology (Dost)-Academe Technology-Based Enterprise Development Program (Datbed).
She not only identified qualified students for the project, but began to train them in the production of oyster mushrooms as well.
According to her, if she laid the groundwork for the project ahead of time, it would hit the ground running as soon as it was finally approved. By the time the Dost, through the Technology Application and Promotion Institute (Tapi), received the proposal in September of 1994, the students she had selected had learned the basics of mushroom production and had already set up growing houses for the fungi in their homes.
The students also had the option of growing the mushrooms at home, or, if they didn’t have enough space at home, on campus, where BSU had built a spacious growing house.
The materials the students needed were: bamboo or wood, nylon ropes with which to tie the mushroom fruiting bags, a knapsack sprayer to water the bags which would also hold the fungi and small tools for maintaining their growing houses with. They also needed packaging materials for marketing their produce after harvest.
To finance their fixed and working capital requirements, the students obtained loans from Dost-Tapi through the BSU Foundation by filling out forms signed by their parents as guarantors. They also had to pledge a counterpart contribution in the form of labor and production space. The
Tapi loan was interest-free, payable in installments at the end of each production cycle. The faculty adviser released the funds to the students, collected repayments when they were due, and deposited the payments in the BSU Foundation account. As the funds were replenished, they went to the next batch of student-entrepreneurs.
As the project progressed, the students learned how to properly lay out the growing house; manage and obtain the fruiting bags – including watering, harvesting and scraping of spent surfaces; do post-harvest handling, including cleaning, sorting and packaging the mushrooms; market the produce and keep financial records of their project.
The mushroom production cycle takes four months—totaling three harvests a year. Each year, a new set of students came for the project.
All in all, Dost-Tapi made available P188,300 during the three-year period that the project ran. For the initial year, Dost-Tapi released P83,000. This money was more than enough to cover the cost of building a growing house on the BSU campus, acquiring sprayers and tools and allocating working capital for one cycle. The fixed assets, however, were amortized over three cycles of the first year. The students were expected to pay in full by the end of the school year.
A harvest of 1,500 kg of mushrooms was targeted for the first cycle of 2,000 fruiting bags. A selling price of P60 per kg, the project was expected to net P60,350 at the end of the initial cycle. For the second and third cycles, harvests were expected to dwindle, at 1000 kg each, as the nutrient content of the fruiting bags would diminish over time.
Three BS Agriculture students majoring in plant pathology participated in the first year of the project’s implementation. They had collectively borrowed P66,000 from the Datbed, grossed P134,000 and netted P47,000. However, they worked separately and achieved varying degrees of success in their entrepreneurial venture. One of the three continued mushroom growing after graduation.
In its second year, two BS agriculture students enlisted in the project. They took out a combined loan of P145,016, had sales of P293,440 and a net income of P93,415. Like the first batch of program beneficiaries, these students worked independently of each other.
By the third year, the management team of Datbed thought it might be a good idea to make the project a group effort, involving students in other fields of specialization. They succeeded in enlisting a team of 12 BS agribusiness management students. A 13th student, a plant pathology major, worked alone.
The team effort produced a good harvest, but loan repayment problems marred what could have been a successful experiment. The student who worked alone, however, earned a small profit after expenses were deducted.
The fourth year of the program saw the participation of four more students who worked separately. Altogether, they sold P510,000 worth of mushrooms and netted P151,700.
The project, Dr. Luis said, not only taught the students discipline and entrepreneurship, but taught her many new things as well. As faculty adviser to the project, Dr. Luis said she found fulfillment in inculcating in her students entrepreneurial drive and skills growing mushrooms.
She “watched with interest” as many of her protegés developed their production skills, marketing savvy and self-confidence, as well as pride in their entrepreneurial venture. As batch after batch of students worked under her tutelage, Dr. Luis also observed that solid work ethic and integrity were the two factors that determined whether or not a student would succeed in his or her venture. “If a student is committed, hardworking, persistent and respectful of his or her obligations,” Dr. Luis said, “he or she is bound to make it.”
“Success,” she said, “is a combination of external resources such as money, materials, support and assistance, as well as markets; and internal resources such as one’s drive to succeed, personal competencies and integrity. These are values I try to pass on to each batch of students I advise.” Dr. Luis added that “whether or not they become entrepreneurs as adults, this knowledge will serve them well.” |
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