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World Mushroom>> India

Mushroom Research and Development of INDIAWriter: Meera Pandey / Date :2005-10-06 / hits: 473

Meera Pandey* Veena S.S and G. Senthil Kumaran*Senior Scientist

Indian Institute of Horticultural ResearchHessaraghatta, Bangalore-560089, India

meera@iihr.ernet.in

Introduction

India is a peninsula, lying between 8.4 and 37.6 degrees north latitude and 68.7 and 97.25 degrees east longitude. It is a vast land (3214 kms from north to south and 2933 kms from east to west) with diverse agro climate, which ranges from extreme temperate in the Himalayan hilly regions to subtropical in the southern regions and tropical in the plains. This climate diversity ensures variety of crop production leading to the production of approximately 3000 million tons of different types of lignocellulosic wastes, which can be recycled. India occupies 2.4% of the world's land area and supports 15% of the world population. About 70% of the population depends on agriculture and allied activities. The average

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shiitake Agaricus bisporus (button mushroom) reishi

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nutritional status of the country is also poor among women and children especially in rural areas. Unemployment is also a social concern. Under these conditions, mushroom cultivation and consumption can be a very viable, eco-friendly alternative for recycling lignocellulosic wastes, better nutrition for the predominantly vegetarian population, employment generation and alternative source of income.The history of mushroom consumption in India is quiet old. However, it was limited only to the tribal population living in and around the forest areas that gathered mushrooms during rainy seasons. Most of the other Indian population shunned the consumption of mushrooms due to the myth of its non-vegetarian status. The advancement of agricultural research in India led to the initiation of Mushroom research, which first began in Tamil Nadu in 1953. Since then, The Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research; through their various institutions and Universities have contributed enormously towards mushroom research and development. Although the Indian mushroom industry has come a long way, it is yet to exploit its full potential. Efforts are underway to educate and bring awareness about the nutritional and medicinal properties of mushrooms and its vegetarian status so that its domestic consumption can be increased. Efforts are also being made for the participation of women in its cultivation so that a better nutrition of the family is ensured. The rural and unemployed youth are being encouraged to take up mushroom cultivation on community basis, which ensures consistent, continuous quality production for effective marketing.

Present status

Although a colossal amount of lignocellulosic waste is generated in the country, more than 50% is either burnt in situ or ploughed in fields. Even if 25% of the waste is recycled through mushroom cultivation; 400 million tones of fresh mushrooms can be produced as against the present annual production of 70,000 tons. This will also help in the nutritional security of the Indian population. The major species being grown in India are tabulated as follows.

SpeciesShare in

cultivation (%)Button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) 85

Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus florida and P. Sajor-caju) 10Milky mushroom (Calocybe indica), Paddy straw

mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) Shiitake (Lentinula edodes), Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum)

5

Button mushroom

Button mushroom, although a temperate species is grown in many parts of India. There are two kinds of growing facilities. The seasonal growing facilities and facilities for growing under controlled conditions. Most of the growers fall under the first category. These growers either grow button mushrooms in the hilly regions or during winter in the plains when the temperature is naturally suitable. Cultivation is done on compost prepared by long method. Compost is generally wheat straw based in the northern region and paddy straw based in the southern region. Horse manure, chicken manure, brewer¡¯s grain, urea, cotton seed meal, gypsum, rice or wheat bran, Ammonium sulphate, super phosphate are some of the additives used in the compost. Temporary thatched sheds, abandoned cold storages or poultry sheds or concrete structures are generally used as growing rooms. Bag, shelf and tray system of cultivation is followed. The bag system utilizes 100-125 gauge polyethylene bags, which can hold 10-15 kg compost to a depth of 12-14 inches. The cropping period in this system may be 6-8 weeks. The shelf system utilizes 125-150 gauge polyethylene sheets for making seasonal shelves. The length of the shelf is equal to the length of the cropping rooms with 4-5 tiers adjusted to a height of 7-8 ft with sufficient space for movement. The depth of compost is kept at 4-6 inches and 90-95% of the yield potential is obtained within 4 weeks. Many farms in the past utilized wooden trays but these have now become obsolete due to cost and difficulty of disinfecting the trays. There are only a handful of growers who have invested for controlled system of button mushroom cultivation. These are mostly the collaborative units with buy back clause. These farms have the facilities of bulk chamber and make compost by short method. Sandy loam soil, old farmyard manure, old spent compost, decomposed coir pith and tea waste is some of the casing materials used. Compost supplementation or CACing, which is popular in the west, is not practiced due to contamination problem. This mushroom is either sold fresh or canned. The retail price of fresh mushroom varies from Rs.60 - 120 per Kg. However, during winter months, the price may scale down to Rs.20-40 per Kg. Most of the button mushroom production in India is by the small seasonal farmers of plains of Punjab and Haryana and the hilly tracts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashthra. Few farms like Agro Dutch (Dutch collaboration) in Punjab and Maharaja mushrooms in Hyderabad have state of the art facilities for growing. The production level of these farms may vary from 80-100 tons per day, which is exported.

Oyster mushroom

Oyster mushroom is mainly grown in the sub-tropical areas especially in

the southern and northeastern region where it can be grown for about 8 months. In northern and western regions it is grown seasonally for 3-4 months during monsoon and before the onset of winter. Paddy straw in south and east and wheat straw in other parts is the main substrate for this mushroom. Soybean stalks; Ragi straw, cotton waste and other locally available substrates are also used. Pleurotus florida (white oyster) and P. sajor-caju (grey oyster) are the major

White oyster mushroom Grey oyster mushroom

species grown. The cultivation method is traditional in polythene bags utilizing 2-3 kg wet substrate. Substrate pasteurization is mainly by hot water or by chemicals (Formaldehyde and Bavistin). Only those growers who already have boilers for other tasks use steam for substrate pasteurization. Research conducted by the mushroom lab at IIHR showed that chemical pasteurization although is easy to use, has detrimental effect and the yield is decreased by 40%. The incidence of Coprinus increases manifold in chemically pasteurized substrate. The growers are being educated about the harmful effect of using chemicals. Many growers have switched over to hot water system. A spawn dose of 4-5% (based on wet weight of substrate) is generally used. The cropping cycle is 45-50 days. Most of the growers are small to medium scale level growing 2-25 Kg fresh mushrooms per day. Many growers have reported respiratory allergy due to Pleurotus spores. The mushroom lab at IIHR has developed a totally sporeless and a low spore shedding mutant to counter spore allergy.

Sporeless mutant Low spored

mutant

This variety is mostly marketed as fresh mushroom but some growers sell as dry mushroom too. The retail price of fresh oyster mushroom varies from Rs.40 - Rs.60 per Kg and that of dry to Rs. 400-600 per Kg. Green mold Trichoderma harzianium and mushroom flies are

the major problems faced by the growers. Chemicals are discouraged for controlling these contaminants. The mushroom lab at IIHR has formulated a set of sanitation measures, which prevents the increase of the population of these contaminants to problematic level. Some of these measures include plugging the bags with cotton plugs instead of making holes, weekly sprays in spawn running room and breaking the environment in the cropping rooms for 3-4 days.

Milky mushroom

Milky mushroom (Calocybe indica) is a tropical mushroom. India is the only country to have developed the commercial domestication package for this species. It was collected wild from the forests of eastern India. In 1972, Dr. Purkayastha and his team at Kalyani University initiated work on this species. In 1985 the culture of this species was procured by IIHR. Mushroom lab at IIHR initiated work on developing a paddy straw based commercial cultivation package of this mushroom. Various other parameters required for basic commercial cultivation were also investigated. In 1993 mushroom lab IIHR distributed the culture of Calocybe indica to other research centers in different zones through all India coordinated mushroom improvement project. The objective of this effort was to evaluate the performance of this species in various agro-climatic zones of the country. The basic cultivation technology based on straw as standardized by mushroom lab at IIHR was followed by all centers. In addition, the centers were also requested to evaluate other

Milky mushroom

locally available wastes for its cultivation. At present this species is mainly grown on paddy and wheat straw. This mushroom is now extensively grown in southern India especially in the state of Tamil Nadu which has suitable climate for year round cultivation. In other states it is grown in summer when temperatures are suitable. Milky mushroom is a truly tropical mushroom requiring 28-30oC for spawn running and 30-35oC for cropping. The cultivation technology is similar to that of oyster mushroom except the requirement of casing. This mushroom is very sensitive to higher moisture content of the substrate (more than 65%), which inhibits efficient spawn running. The mycelial colonization is slightly slower than oyster mushroom, hence requires more care during spawning and spawn running. Pasteurized sandy loam soil having a pH of 7.5 - 8 and a depth of 2.5-6 cm is recommended as casing material. The initiation of pinhead may take 10-15 days after casing and maturation may take another 5-7 days. Hence the cropping cycle of this species is longer 55-60 days. The sporophores are large, milky white, attractive with long, fibrous stalk. The stalk is also edible. This mushroom has an excellent shelf life of 3-4 days at 25-30oC and 15-20 days in home refrigerator (stored in polypropylene bags of 150 gauze with 0.33-0.67% vent area). Another excellent feature of this mushroom is that there is absolutely no browning on storage. This mushroom can be dehydrated without any change of colour. The pure culture of this mushroom however cannot be stored below 25oC. This species is mostly sold fresh and the retail price varies from Rs. 80 - 100 per Kg. The post harvest laboratory at IIHR has standardized the recepies for its pickle, which is an excellent value added product.

Paddy straw mushroom

Paddy straw mushroom is cultivated on a very limited scale in the eastern part in the state of Orissa. Although this species is suitable for tropical regions, yet is not very popular in India. The major reason is its very short shelf life, low biological efficiency and lack of organized marketing. The cultivation of this variety is usually done in thatched huts on paddy straw bundles. Beds are made of 10-15 kg straw, pasteurized with hot water. Gram flour is recommended in many areas as supplement. The consumption too is limited to the place of production. There is a need to popularize this mushroom through organized marketing for dry mushroom market.

Shiitake mushroom

Shiitake grown on sawdust at IIHR

Shiitake (Lentinula edodes), globally a very well known cultivated species, is yet to find a place in the Indian markets. Lack of cultivation technology on locally available substrates and suitable high temperature strains are the major reasons for its non-availability in India. This species has been reported from the forests of northeastern India.

A few growers in the states of Manipur and Mizoram initiated the cultivation based on the Japanese log system, with limited success. However, the scenario is rapidly changing now. The two major mushroom research centers viz. National mushroom research center (NRCM), Solan and Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bangalore has procured suitable strains for cultivation. These institutions are trying to develop cultivation technology based on locally available substrates. NRCM being located in the northern region utilizes sawdust of oaks, poplars, Mango etc. Attempts are also being made to grow it on wheat straw, which is amply available in this region. IIHR being located in the south is experimenting with mixed sawdust and wood chips of silver oak and banyan trees. The initial results have been encouraging with a biological efficiency of 70%. Paddy straw and coir waste are amply available in this region. Attempts are being made to standardize cultivation methods based on these substrates too. Fructification has been obtained on these two substrates also.

Reishi mushroom

Ganoderma grown on sawdust at IIHR

Ganoderma lucidum, a species of tropical Asian origin, is yet not cultivated in India. Until now this species was studied only as a tree pathogen. The establishment of the Malaysian firm DXN in Chennai has created a lot of awareness about this species. Research projects have been launched at the two mentioned research institutions to standardize the commercial cultivation package suitable for Indian growers. IIHR, being located in tropical region has

launched on a programme on the collection and conservation of the indigenous species from the Western Ghats. Nineteen strains have been collected and are being conserved. The initial cultivation trials have yielded a biological efficiency up to 27% on silver oak sawdust supplemented with rice and wheat bran.

MECHANIZATION

Mechanization of The Indian mushroom industry through indigenous machinery has just begun. The aim of mechanization of Indian mushroom industry is to increase the efficiency of the labour, decrease labour drudgery, streamline the production and bring about consistency and continuity. Unlike the west, automation is not the key word because unemployment is a major concern. Since women are being encouraged to take up mushroom cultivation, due attention is being given to efficient tools, simple to operate rather than heavy and automatic machinery. IIHR Bangalore and NRCM Solan are the two institutions working jointly on this project. IIHR has designed and developed a grain cleaning machine, a grain-boiling unit and a hand operated spawn inoculation machine. Attempts are underway to fabricate bag filling, spawning and casing machines too.

EXPORT POTENTIAL

Due to low production and unorganized marketing, it is difficult to get the

statistics of mushroom export of India. Most of the earlier mushroom export was limited to the wild mushroom Morchella. This mushroom is collected from the forests of the Himalayan region for export. It was only after 1990 that the export of cultivated mushrooms started. It was mainly button mushroom which was exported as canned product through buy back partnership like Pond's India Ltd, Flex food Ltd, Agro Dutch mushrooms etc. Countries like Switzerland and USA are among the consistent importers of canned button mushroom from India. However, most of such farms closed down after the withdrawal of the buy back option. A few private entrepreneurs are exporting dried Pleurotus. Species like Calocybe indica is yet to be explored for the international market. Being a tropical species with local cultivation technology, this mushroom can be a major item of Indian export.

FUTURE THRUST AREAS

The awareness about the nutritional and medicinal value of mushrooms is gaining importance rapidly. The local consumption is also increasing steadily, though it has a long way to go. Considering the expanding global market and the potential of the region, the research institutions are working towards the following goals.

1. Increasing awareness among the people to enhance local consumption.

2. Bring about diversity through standardizing cultivation technology of species like Lentinula, Ganoderma, and Hypsizygus based on local materials.

3. Develop methodologies of home scale cultivation of Pleurotus and encourage its cultivation by housewives.

4. Develop value added products for indigenous and export market. 5. Develop domestication package of the wild mushrooms of the

region. 6. Encourage community mushroom farming.

7. Introduce more number of sub tropical and tropical strains.

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