Urban Mushroom Farming

Abstract

Nowadays, mushrooms are gaining popularity in cities due to its high nutritional value and awareness about health. There are several varieties of edible Mushrooms under cultivation but still Button Mushroom’ is dominating in terms of production and consumption. People are interested to cultivate button mushrooms on their own but the constraint is heavy initial investment and more space needed for compost making. In the present study, button mushroom composting is carried out by many Mushroom units across India. But only few sells spawned ready to grow compost bags to the urban population for its growing at their houses. Mushroom Club, Pune has initiated this unique kind of concept – ‘Urban Mushroom Farming’ in Maharashtra in recent years. Necessary training is provided to them so as to acquaint them with the technology. It was found that from a bag of 10 Kg compost which costs Rs.100/- to the grower and in return they were able to harvest around 2 Kgs of fresh Button Mushrooms in just two months time period and earn Rs.260/-. One grower can easily place 300 bags in 300 sq.ft. room. There is a tremendous potential for button mushroom farming in urban areas especially in Societies provided if they can get ready to grow Compost bags through centralized composting facility made to be available in nearby areas. It is concluded that the unemployed youth can raise ‘Centralized Composting Unit’ (CCU) through Prime Minister Mudra loan scheme and provide compost bags to the urban population to fulfill their need of quality protein rich food and earn handsome income.