I left my private job and decided to do something else. I saw in the media about mushroom cultivation and that got me interested, says Shazia Jehan, resident of Kulgam district in Jammu & Kashmir. She thought why not start a mushroom unit herself. Shazia contacted the Agriculture Department. She was trained for 10 days where she learnt how to grow mushrooms. After the completion of her training, she was given a mushroom unit. Then she resolved to make this her future and her mushroom business is doing well. Young entrepreneur Shazia has achieved success and is earning her own income. She has to give a few hours in the morning and evening for mushroom nurturing. She requests all the educated unemployed youth to take up mushroom cultivation units to build their future rather than hankering after government or private jobs. Dawood Ahmad, Chief Agriculture Officer in Kulgam says our goal is women empowerment. We want women to earn their livelihood and be capable enough to provide livelihood to a few others. He says the youth can come and register themselves and start any employment scheme from the various agricultural schemes that the government offers and earn income of their own.