The scheme was started in 2001 at NARP (SZ) as a part of the Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani. It’s one of the pioneering centres working with mushrooms under ICAR- Directorate of Mushroom Research, Solan. The main mandates of AICRP on Mushrooms main is to coordinate and monitor trials with improved mushroom varieties, cultivation practices related to crop production, crop protection measures and postharvest technology aimed at increasing production, productivity and utilization of mushroom in the country.
The main objectives are
- To conduct trainings and seminars for popularizing the mushroom cultivation in different agro ecosystems and social empowerment of the weaker sections of the society.
- Quality spawns supply to the mushroom growers.
- To conduct survey of naturally occurring wild mushrooms, cataloguing of the edible / medicinal species
- To evaluate the promising and high yielding strains for regional adaptability
- Standardisation of cultivation techniques of different mushrooms.
- Exploring the possibility of using locally available materials as substrates
- Development of several mushroom value added products for increasing the consumer acceptability
Facilities at AICRP on Mushrooms
The major facilities include spawn and mushroom production units, coir pith compost unit and mushroom museum. Spawn production unit includes inoculation unit and storage chamber. Mushroom production unit consists of dark room, cropping room and a mushroom processing unit.
Achievements
- Standardised the cultivation technique of Shiitake mushroom for the first time in Kerala
- Standardised the cultivation technique of Agaricus sp by utilising mixture of compost prepared from pearl millet straw, poultry manure, urea and gypsum overlaid with coir pith compost as casing material.
- Standardized the cultivation technique of Tricholoma giganteum using paddy straw as substrate and vermicompost as casing material
- Utilization of coconut fronds, rachis, trunk for the cultivation of oyster mushroom for eco-friendly management of agricultural waste.
- Developed the bottle method of mushroom cultivation by using the mineral water bottle- Recycling of plastic waste
- Developed several mushroom value added products for increasing the consumer acceptability
- Good quality spawn supply to the mushroom growers
- Enhanced the mushroom production of Kerala by providing technical know-how to the mushroom farmers.
Services
The services includes
- Providing quality spawn to the mushroom growers
- Utilisation of agrowaste as substrate for mushroom cultivation
- Training programme to create awareness on mushroom cultivation there by empowering the women and unemployed youth.
- Providing consultancy services for the mushroom growers
