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Bhutan: Berpa's only mushroom grower fights through adversity

In Berpa in Khoma Gewog, Lhuentse, 25-year-old Karma Wangdi is redefining youth-led agriculture by venturing into integrated agri-business. As the only commercial mushroom grower in the area, Karma's goal is not just to build a livelihood but to keep his ancestral land alive and productive.

His journey is supported by institutional backing from the Dzongkhag administration and the Commercial Agriculture and Resilient Livelihoods Enhancement Programme (CARLEP), which has helped him sustain and gradually expand his family-run enterprise. Karma's ambitions go beyond mushrooms. He plans to invest in integrated fruit crops and kiwi cultivation alongside new mushroom varieties. But his vision is rooted—literally—in home soil.

"I do not want to leave the homeland and lease another land," he said. "If we leave this land, our ancestral land will turn fallow—which is difficult to revive."

After completing Class XII in 2018, Karma was unable to pursue higher education due to financial constraints. In 2022, he established Karmic Farm, co-managed with his mother. The initial investment of Nu 100,000, contributed by his mother, went into 500 shiitake logs and 90 bags of oyster mushrooms. But the first attempt failed.

Read more at Kuensel