Mushroom Culture

Introduction to Mushrooms

Importance & History

Importance:

• Mushrooms are being used as food since time immemorial. These have been considered as the delicacy. From the nutrition point of view mushrooms are placed between meat and vegetables.
• These are rich in protein, carbohydrate and vitamins. Mushrooms are low in caloric value and hence are recommended for heart and diabetic patients. They are rich in proteins as compared to cereals, fruits and vegetables. In addition to proteins (3.7 %), they also contain carbohydrate (2.4 %), fat (0.4%), minerals (0.6 %) and water (91%) on fresh weight basis. Mushrooms contain all the essential nine amino acids required for human growth. Mushrooms are excellent source of thiamine (vitamin-B1), riboflavin ( B2), niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, folic acid, vitamin C, D, A and K which are retained even after cooking. Since mushrooms possess low caloric value, high protein, high fibre content and high K: Na ratio, they are ideally suited for diabetic and hypertension patients. They are also reported to possess anticancer activities.
• India is primarily agriculture based country blessed with a varied agro-climate, abundance of agricultural waste and manpower, making it most suitable for cultivation of all types of temperate, subtropical and tropical mushrooms. It can profitably be started by landless farmers, unemployed youths and other entrepreneurs. It requires less land as compared to other agricultural crops and is basically an indoor activity. These are the ideal tools for recycling the agricultural wastes which otherwise may pose problem of disposal and atmospheric pollution.
• Therefore, mushroom cultivation is not only of economic importance but also has important role to play in integrated rural development programme by increasing income and self employment opportunities for village youths, woman folk and housewives to make them financially independent.

History:
A. Button mushroom

• 1630: Cultivation of white button mushroom started first in France in the open on ridges made out of horse dung manure.
• 1707: Tournefort at Royal Academy of Science, France, mentioned about compost preparation and mushroom cultivation.
• 1731: French method of cultivation was introduced into England by Miller.
• 1779: Abercrombie described a method of composting stable horse manure in stacks.
• 1831: Callow grew mushroom in cropping houses warmed by fire heat and got fairly good yield (1.5 lbs/sq.ft)
• 1893: Costanitin pointed out that the incidence of diseases made constant changing of growing area necessary.
• 1902: Ferguson published details of spore germination and growing of mycelium.
• 1905: Duggar succeeded in making mycelium cultures from the tissue of mushroom caps.
• 1929: Lambert discovered that spawn could also be prepared from single spore cultures.
• 1937: Sinden found that about one third of monospore cultures of A.bisporus he prepared were incapable of producing fruit bodies.
• 1950: Sinden and Hauser introduced “Short Method ” of composting.
• 1973: The first strain of A.bitorquis introduced commercially by a French firm Somycel as strain No. 2017 and later by Le Lion

B. Oyster mushroom:

• 1917: Falck described the first successful cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus.
• 1951: Lowhag was the first to grow Pleurotus on sawdust mixtures.
• 1962: Bano and Srivastava reported mass production on straw-based substrates and their work paved the way for large scale commercial exploitation.

History of Mushroom Cultivation in India
Cultivation of edible mushrooms in India is of recent origin, though methods of cultivation for some were known for many years. The important historical developments in the cultivation of edible mushrooms are as below:

• 1886: Some of specimens of mushrooms were grown by N.W. Newton and exhibited at the annual show of Agriculture, Horticulture Society of India.
• 1896-97: Dr. B.C. Roy of the Calcutta Medical College carried out chemical analysis of the local mushrooms prevalent in caves or mines.
• 1908: A thorough search of edible mushroom was initiated by Sir David Pain.
• 1921: Bose was successful in culturing two agarics on a sterilized dung medium, details of which were published in the Indian Science Congress held at Nagpur during 1926.
• 1939-45: Attempts on experimental cultivation of paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella) was first undertaken by the Department of Agriculture, Madras.
• 1941: Padwick reported successful cultivation of Agaricus bisporus from various countries but without much success in India.
• 1943: Thomas et al. gave the details of cultivation of paddy straw mushroom (V. diplasia) in Madras.
• 1947: Asthana reported better yields of paddy straw mushroom by adding red powdered dal to the beds. He suggested April-June as the most suitable period for cultivating this mushroom in central Provinces and also carried out the chemical analysis of this mushroom.
• 1961: A scheme entitled “Development of mushroom cultivation in Himachal Pradesh” was started at Solan by the H.P. State Govt. in collaboration with I.C.A.R. This was the first serious attempt on cultivation of Agaricus bisporus in the country.
• 1962: Bano et al. obtained increased yield of Pleurotus on paddy straw.
• 1964: Cultivation of Agaricus bisporus on experimental basis was started by CSIR and State Govt. at Srinagar in J&K.
• 1965: Dr. E.F.K. Mantel, F.A.O., Mushroom Expert, guided and assisted Department of Agriculture for construction of modern spawn laboratory and a fully air conditioned mushroom house. Research on evaluation of different strains and use of various agricultural wastes, organic manures and fertilizers for preparing synthetic compost were undertaken. Dr. Mantel’s consultancy concluded after a period of 7 years.
• 1974: Dr.W.A. Hayes, F.A.O., Mushroom Expert, guided further in improving the method of compost preparation, pasteurization and management of important parameters in the mushroom house. New compost formulations, casing materials and important parameters like nitrogen content in the compost, moisture in the casing mixture, air movements and maintenance of proper environmental factors were also standardized which raised the mushroom yields from 7 to 14 kg/m².
• 1977: A 1.27 crore, Mushroom Development Project was launched under U.N.D.P by the Department of Horticulture (H.P) wherein the services of Mr. James Tunney were made available. He got a bulk pasteurization chamber constructed and made available readymade compost and casing to the growers of H.P. The U.N.D.P. Project was concluded during 1982 and since then the Department of Horticulture (H.P) is running the project.
• 1982: The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) sanctioned the creation of National Centre for Mushroom Research and Training (NCMRT) during VIth plan on October 23, 1982 with the objectives of conducting research on mushroom production, preservation and utilization and to impart training to scientists, teachers, extension workers and interested growers.
• 1983: All India Coordinated Project on Mushroom (AICRPM) was initiated during VIth Five-Year Plan on 01.04.1983 with its headquarter at National Research Centre for Mushroom Presently known as Directorate of Mushrooms.
• Presently there are ten co-ordinating and one co-operating centres working under AICRPM located in 11 states. Of these,nine centres are based at State Agricultural Universities, while two at the ICAR institutes.