Boost for Mushroom Farming
Chitradurga
“Environmentally friendly mushroom farming can be undertaken to earn more income with less cost and less land. Farmers can make this a part of integrated farming system,” said Assistant Director of Agriculture of District Agricultural Training Center R Rajnikanth.
He spoke at a one-day training programme on Mushroom Farming and Value Addition for farmers in the district under the State Zonal Agriculture Commissionerate scheme at the District Agricultural Training Center in Babbur Farm, Hiriyur taluk on Friday.
Among the various edible mushroom species, oyster mushroom or oyster mushroom can be grown very easily. Edible mushroom is a very nutritious food, rich in many vitamins and minerals, and low in iron and sugar content, which is helpful in preventing diabetes and heart diseases. Therefore, he requested the farmers to take advantage of the information provided in this training to grow it as a hobby or commercial crop indoors in a small space, in a short period of time and at low cost.
In the backdrop of farmers not being able to rely solely on agriculture due to the current climatic conditions and move forward economically, they can expect to make a profit from agricultural side activities such as beekeeping, dairy farming, poultry farming, and sheep and goat farming, if they suffer losses in one, they can expect profit from other complementary agricultural activitiesm.
Gorappavara Bharamappa, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Microbiology,presented a topic to the farmers on the selection of various varieties of edible mushrooms, cultivation methods, management, and precautionary measures.
Thippeswamy of Bhimasamudra informed the farmers about the cultivation methods followed in mushroom cultivation and marketing methods.
Dr Saraswati from the Agricultural Research Center, gave information about various value-added products of mushroom cultivation.