TURA: A young entrepreneur from a village under Songsak in East Garo Hills has tasted success after he embarked on a livelihood venture merely by watching videos of mushroom cultivation on Youtube.
Meet Panchiang Marak from Tebil Bonegre village who, by watching Youtube videos, began cultivation in his own house to earn some money. Although his first two attempts in growing the edible fungi did not achieve the desired result, Marak never gave up and was able to see significant success on his third try.
East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Swapnil Tembe recently visited the young entrepreneur in his home to get a better understanding of the hardships he faced and to encourage him to carry on with the money-generating activity.
Speaking during his interaction with the DC, Panchiang said that being unemployed, he was always looking for ways to earn some money when he came across a video of mushrooms being cultivated on Youtube.
“I saw a video of people cultivating mushrooms on Youtube and decided to give it a try as I had nothing better to do the whole day. It looked easy as there was no big investment involved,” Marak said. Although, he did not have to invest a large amount of money, Marak said that he had to sell his motorcycle. “I decided to sell my only motorcycle for Rs 60,000. But during negotiations, it was scaled down to Rs 45,000 and with the money I was able to start my venture,” Marak said.
Marak learnt through trial and error and he was not satisfied with the results of his first two tries. However, he persisted trying to make various improvements and was quite happy with the results on his third attempt, although he feels there is still room for improvement.
While Marak is yet to reap the profits of his venture through sale so far, he is hopeful that the activity will help him to earn a living in the future.
Meanwhile, in his message to the younger generation, Marak urged them not to waste time on social media but to put internet to good use to help them be productive.
“I do not have social media accounts like Facebook. I use WhatsApp but that is only to gather necessary information. My advice to other young people is to make use of the information provided in the internet to improve their lives instead of wasting time,” hrsaid.
