Economic Viability, Technological Gap and Problems of Mushroom Cultivation in Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh

Increases income, reduces risk and promotes sustainability. Mushroom is one of the supplementary enterprises which fits well in diversification. A study was carried out in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. Out of 60 mushroom growers, 80 per cent raised only one crop of button mushroom in a year and most of the growers placed spawned compost bags in the month of October. The fixed cost of production / 100 bags of button mushroom varied from 44.47 per cent on small farms to 22.42 per cent on large farms. The variable cost varied from 55.53 per cent on small farms to 77.58 per cent on large farms implying the economical use of fixed and variable resources by large growers. The gross returns per 100 bags basis ranged between Rs. 37,200 and Rs. 40,200 on small and large farms for button mushroom. The overall benefitcost ratio was 1.87:1. Break-even output varied from 279 kg to 147 kg for small and large growers and break-even point was at 93 and 42 compost bags for small and large growers respectively. Technological gap included the important parameters like temperature, relative humidity, CO concentration, surface cleaning by formalin , storage temperature etc. The mushrooms growers faced production, marketing, 2 financial and institutional problems. However, the intensity of the production problems was much higher than others.