FINANCIAL FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS OF PLEUROTUS MUSHROOM CULTIVATION USING DIFFERENT SUBSTRATES

Abstract

The study aims to evaluate the financial feasibility of cultivating Pleurotus mushrooms using various substrates including rice straw, maize stalk, banana leaves, and tree leaves. The financial analysis includes Gross return, Net return, IRR, B/C ratio, R/C ratio, and payback period followed by sensitivity analysis where the prices and gross returns are increased and decreased by 10%. Additionally, the study examines the BC ratio for each substrate. Benefit cost ratio is 1.23 indicates that mushroom cultivation is a profitable venture. The sensitivity analysis shows that the financial performance of mushroom cultivation is sensitive to changes in cost and gross return. So, increase or decrease in cost and gross return influence the outcomes of an investment. The cost was recovered in the first two harvests, which took approximately 2 months. Therefore, the payback period is determined to be two months. Among substrates evaluated, rice straw emerges as the most feasible option followed by maize stalk. On the other hand, banana leaves and tree leaves are less efficient in terms of economic return.