My Journey through the Miracle of Medicinal Mushrooms

I was born in agriculture family located in Northern Thailand , Prae. One thing in my memory is mushroom cultivation was part of our family. After the end of each crop season, mushroom cultivation like Straw mushroom or Shaggy mushroom were done by collecting the farm-wasted such as rice stalk, soybeans and peanuts shells, coconut leaves etc.. Then stack them up in piles and wait for nature to work.

My journey to the world of Medicinal Mushrooms had been started in the biggest city, Bangkok. From farm to city, my knowledge started to expand and bloom, when I went to college, Kasetsart University. This was the place where I studied, learned as well as researched and developed the controlled cultivation method with straw mushroom for the first time in history. This technique was later taught to mushroom cultivators all over the country. Then straw mushroom became most popular one among growers. From straw mushroom importer, Thailand became world largest straw mushroom exporter in 1977.

A few years later, I successfully developed Shiitake mushroom cultivation in plastic bags. So growers were no longer depend on logs and high humidity environment such as river.

In 1980, Minister of Agriculture and Forest of Bhutan and Dr. D.L. Umali, director of Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nation (FAO), invited me to work in Bhutan as “Do-how” mushroom specialist. After I worked there from 1981-1985, I had many chances to work with many countries around Asia such as Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India.

During 1989 and 2004, my destination were countries in Africa such as Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Benin, South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and etc..

After long time aboard, I retired and came back to my home country in 2005. Here in Thailand, I restart my life again but not as Mushroom expert or specialist. I’m back to be a farmer as my father was.