Need to promote ‘gucchi’, ‘keeda jadi’ mushroom varieties: Himachal Governor

Solan, Sep 10 (IANS) Himachal Pradesh Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla on Tuesday said more research was needed to increase the shelf-life of mushrooms besides promoting wild mushroom varieties ‘gucchi’ and ‘keeda jadi’ as they can fetch high prices.

Emphasising organising training and exhibitions to make farmers aware, the Governor said the growers should be motivated to adopt mushroom farming.

He was addressing the 27th National Mushroom Fair organised by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Directorate of Mushroom Research, (ICAR-DMR) in Solan.

The Governor said Solan town was named the ‘Mushroom City’ on September 10, 1997, and its 27 years of journey has witnessed new techniques and numerous innovations in mushroom farming, making it a quality product.

He said mushroom production in India, which was around one lakh tons 10 years ago, has reached 3.50 lakh tons as of today and India was ranked fourth in mushroom production, ensuring handsome income in a short period of two to three months.

He said the scientists, producers, entrepreneurs and industries need to come together on a single platform by using the available modern technologies for enhancing its production and marketing.

“It is a matter of pride that the Directorate of Mushroom Research is the only institute in the country which has 32 all-India coordinated mushroom project centres in the country.”

He appealed to the directorate to take the production techniques to every corner of the country through agricultural universities and agricultural science centres to enable the varieties produced could fetch good prices for the mushroom developers.

The Governor presented the Progressive Mushroom Grower Award to Anuj Kumar from Assam, Ganesh from Maharashtra, Prakash Chand from Odisha, Rekha Kumari from Bihar and Shije from Kerala.

Earlier, V.P. Sharma, Director, Directorate of Mushroom Research, welcomed the Governor and detailed the national mushroom fair, the status of mushroom production in India and the world and the achievements of ICAR-DMR, Solan.

Sanjay Kumar Singh, Deputy Director General, Horticulture, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, said the directorate has developed many new varieties of mushrooms which were in high demand globally.

He said today there was a huge market for mushrooms and to meet such demand more production should be done with modern methods.

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