Mushroom Culture

Course Overview

This course has been prepared with the objective of providing the mycology/microbiology students a concise and practical information about wild and cultivated mushrooms, their nutritional and medicinal values, spawn production and cultivation techniques, post - harvest management, pest and disease problems and the economics and marketing strategies.

• Mushrooms are the macro fungi with distinctive fruiting body in different shapes, colour and size which may be hypogeous or epigeous with their size large enough to be seen with the naked eyes like that of white button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms and many others.
• Since edible mushrooms are very tasty, easy to digest and have high nutritional and medicinal values, they are known to be a good alternative to satisfy the hunger of millions of people in the world as nutritious food, because they are rich in protein, low in sugar and fat content, high in vitamin content and are a good source of minerals like iron, calcium, magnesium. It contains all the essential amino acids.
• The commercial cultivation of a number of mushrooms are being done in the world for their use as nutritious food and the medicine. The students will be able to have a thorough knowledge of these mushrooms and their cultivation techniques and also about other aspects related to mushroom culture.