You are on page 1of 3

Problems in mushroom farming

By Editorial Team on February 1, 2006


y y y y y y

Print Comment Feed Stumble it Digg it del.icio.us Facebook

Despite all the favourable conditions, mushroom farming is not spreading fast. There are certain inherent problems or bottlenecks which hamper fast spread of mushroom farming in India.The present study was conducted in order to find out these problems and to suggest remedial measures thereby predicting the future of mushroom farming in India.

Monetary gain is the prime factor for the growth of any profession.Mushroom farming is a highly remunerative enterprise with quick return in very short period. Studies have shown that this activity can be placed at third place just after crop and animal husbandry, as far as monetary gains are concerned. Hence, several ICAR institutes, CSIR institutes, State Department of Horticulture & Agril., Agricultural and general Universities and various reputed N.G.Os are working on various aspects of mushroom cultivation and its adoption. Nevertheless, Indias annual mushroom production is still negligible as compared to world production. Presently, about 70,000 tonnes of fresh mushroom is being produced in India as against over 5 million tonnes world production of mushroom annually. Inspite of four decades of planned efforts, the pace of mushroom cultivation is slow in our country, while countries like Korea, China and Indonesia are now much ahead of India. Apart from technical know -how, the climate for cultivation of various kinds of mushrooms is also conducive and the raw material (agro-waste) required for their substrate preparation (compost) are available in plenty in rural India. OBJECTIVES The present study was undertaken with the following objectives: 1. To find out the problems/constraints in rapid spread of mushroom farming. 2. To suggest ways for tackling the problems 3. To ensure rapid spread of mushroom cultivation. METHODOLOGY To know the problems encountered by prospective entrepreneurs in fast adoption of mushroom cultivation, structured interview schedule and questionnaires were prepared. The

mushroom growers were interviewed with the help of these schedules. The participants of Kisan Goshthis from States like Himachal Pradesh ,Punjab, Haryana were also contacted through the questionnaire structured for this purpose during Mushroom Melas. Likewise, the participants of a meet on Possibilities & Means for Increasing * Senior Scientist (Agril. Extension), National Research Centre for Mushroom Chambaghat, Solan (HP) **Principal Scientist, National Research Centre for Mushroom, Chambaghat, Solan (HP) Mushroom Production in Future held at Solan were also exposed to structured questionnaire. The outcome of all the interview schedules & questionnaires were studied and the major problems were identified as under. PROBLEMS IN ADOPTION OF MUSHROOM CULTIVATION All though, the study indicated that the nature of problems varies with the extent and type of mushroom growing yet the general problems being faced by mushroom growers and farmers could be listed as the following: A) Problems of large mushroom growers The problems of large mushroom growers are different from the small, marginal, seasonal growers/farmers. The major problems of large mushroom growers are as under. i) Lack of good quality spawn The yield of mushroom to a great extent depends upon quality of spawn. Good quality of spawn should be free from diseases with high yield potential. The non- availability of quality spawn is a common problem of large mushroom growers. They change source of spawn every year in the search of quality spawn. Generally, the private spawn producers who are not equipped with the knowledge & facility for mushroom breeding are selling the spawn falsely claiming that they have developed new high yielding strains. Infect, the spawn producers procure the mother culture of mushroom from Govt. organisation or prepare the culture by selecting a healthy mushroom and using it for making commercial spawn of mushroom with their own brand name. Sometimes, mushroom growers get immature spawn which results indelayed spawn run. Tripathi and Kaushik (2001) reported that this problem was encountered by 40 % mushroom growers in Haryana. ii) Uncontrolled price structure of mushroom When there is a glut in the market, the price of mushroom falls down to Rs. 20-30/kg but as the demand increases or shortage of mushrooms in the market the prices rise upto Rs. 6070/kg . Thus there is always an uncertainty in market price of mushroom which reduces the amount of net profit and discourages the mushroom growers. This problem gets aggravated during peak production months, also because there is no minimum support price from the Govt. even in states with good number of mushroom farmers. Paul et al. (2001) and Tripathi and Kaushik (2001) have reported similar types of marketing problems upto a greater extent in their studies . iii) Lack of common facility for pre-cooling and storage of fresh mushroom This is also an severe problem being experienced by large mushroom growers. During the peak production period, growers are unable to dispose off their fresh mushroom on the same

day and they are forced to keep it for the next day. In such a situation, the quality of fresh mushroom deteriorates and it also loses weight as it is a highly perisable commodity which can only be stored for about 12 hrs at room temperature and 2-3 days at 5?C. In order to combat this problem, mushroom growers require a common facility of cold room where they can store their produce for 2 to 3 days and also a pre-cooling unit for increasing the keeping quality of mushroom. Presently this kind of facility is not available for storing mushroom, even in areas where small mushroom growers are clustered in large numbers. Paul et al. (2001) ranked this problem at first place with an extent of 93 % among the other input supply constraints. iv) High transportation charges Although, agro and animal wastes are available in plenty in India but they availability are not evenly distributed. Due to diversified climate and topography of land, different kinds of crops are raised in different parts of the country. For instance, wheat and paddy straw is easily available at cheaper rates in the plains of north India while the same is a scarce commodity in the hilly regions. Since mushroom cultivation is based on agro-waste, the raw materials required for its cultivation are usually transported from plains to hills in huge quantity and mushroom growers have to pay heavy transportation charges resulting in avoidable increase in cost of production and reduction in net profit. v) Commercial rate of electricity tariff Similarly, both small and big mushroom growers have to pay electricity charges at commercial rate, although mushroom farming is an agricultural activity. Many times it has been highlighted by the concerned scientific community during scientific gatherings, seminars, meetings, etc. This has led to high cost of production due to increased capital as well as recurring expenditure on mushroom farming. vi) Lack of marketing facilities When a large quantity of mushrooms are harvested per day at large mushroom farms, then its marketing becomes a major problem. Mushroom grower can not dispose off large quantity of mushroom more than the daily demand in the local market and in near by cities. In such a situation, he has to dispose off the remaining quantity of mushroom either at a distress-price or he has to transport it to different places where demand of mushroom is high. But the problem is of delivering the fresh mushroom from producing area to non-producing area beyond a distance of 300-400km, since mushroom is a perishable vegetable and cant be stored at room temperature for more than 12 hours. It is only possible when it is transported in refrigerated vans which is currently not available. As a result the mushroom deteriorate in quality and quantity and the grower is made to incur heavy losses. Singh et al. (2004), Tripathi and Kaushik(2001), and Suharban et al. (1991) have also reported similar problem. Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

You might also like