perceptible only in late 80’s and 90’s after the establishment of the National Research Centre for
Mushroom and the All India Coordinated Mushroom Improvement Project, when both horizontal and vertical
growth in mushroom productivity and production were noticed.
Considerable awareness was created at the national level, concerted efforts were made to transfer the research
findings and technologies to the farmers/growers at large by organizing regular training courses, demonstrations
and the publication of technical literature, etc. which led to initiation of mushroom farming activities in every nook
and corner of the country.
During the last decade several medium to large sized integrated mushroom units have “mushroomed up” in
different States of the country contributing to the increase in the production. In fact, the total registered capacity
of the organized sector today is already touching seventy thousand tonnes per annum, while in unorganized sector
also, more and more small and seasonal growers are taking up this cash crop to augment their family income
resulting in total production of about one lakh tonne per annum. It is obvious therefore, that to sustain and maintain
the growth rate of this non-traditional cash crop, concerted R&D efforts would be needed in the coming years.
Also, to make the Indian mushroom industry competitive in the world market, country’s research capabilities
and technological expertise will need to be brought at par with other mushroom growing countries, which can be
achieved only by proper planning and implementation of requisite futuristic programmes.
The present document, Vision-2025, is a step in that direction and envisages our research and development
perspectives for the next 18-19 years.
The entire exercise has been made as per Council’s guidelines with a
bottom-up approach involving individual scientists to foresee the future requirements of their respective areas of
specialization and their contributions are gratefully acknowledged. Advices and suggestions of other mushroom
experts were also very helpful in identifying the future goals and their comments and suggestions will always be
welcome to further augment our efforts. However, the regular support and advice from the Horticulture Division,
the members of RAC, QRT and IMC of the Centre, the Policy and Planning Cell of the Council, Peer members
and personal guidance by the Director General, ICAR, were the guiding forces to complete this onerous task.
At the end, I must give full credit to Dr. S.R. Sharma, Principal Scientist, Dr. R.D. Rai, Principal Scientist,
Dr. Mahesh C. Yadav, Senior Scientist and Mrs. Shailja Verma, Technical Officer of the Centre for their
contributions in giving the present shape to this publication, which I am sure will serve to provide us the required
vision in the years to come.
(R.P. Tewari)
Director, NRCM and
Project Coordinator, AICMIP,
iii
July 16th, 2007
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