The Hindu Business Line : TNAU sees `protein revolution' through mushroom cultivation

AFTER the green, white and blue revolutions, a protein revolution is possible through mushrooms, the Vice-Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Dr C. Ramasamy, has said.

Expressing optimism about a possible protein revolution, the Vice-Chancellor said that there was lot of scope for promoting mushroom production on a commercial scale.

The TNAU has been organising regular training programmes on mushroom cultivation.

Recently, the university entered into an memorandum of understanding with KMCR & ET (Kovai Medical Centre Research and Educational Trust) for conducting research to find new medicinal mushroom varieties and for developing commercially valuable products for the pharmaceutical industry.

This has been in the light of the findings by the medical fraternity about the nutritional and medicinal properties in the button mushroom.

He said that the research would focus on developing drugs that have antiviral and antibacterial properties, besides reducing cholesterol and diabetes levels. He lamented that over 50 per cent of the agricultural waste generated every year was being burnt and wasted instead of being put to productive use.

The Director of the National Research Centre for Mushrooms at Solan in Himachal Pradesh, Dr R.P. Tewari, said though the conditions between India and China were similar, China topped in mushroom production, while India did not even find a place among the 100 mushroom producing countries worldwide. "Considering the quantum of agricultural waste generated every year (over 350 million tonnes), cheap labour and the available human resources in villages, there is enormous scope for expansion. China's success is mainly because this amazing gift of nature is grown as a village industry and all operations are carried out on a cooperative basis. The domestic market in China is strong, because every citizen is a mushroom eater," he added.

Reverting to the Indian production scenario, he said that mushroom production was negligible at 50,000 tonnes per annum as against the world's production of 55 lakh tonnes.

According to Dr Ramasamy, even this was possible because of the technological breakthrough made by the TNAU with the release of newer varieties with high yield potential. The TNAU proposed to release yet another mushroom variety this year with increased medicinal properties, higher yield and better taste.

Tamil Nadu topped in mushroom production with 25 per cent share of the total production in the county, he said and pointed out that the University had so far imparted over 250 training programmes (on mushroom cultivation) benefiting 2,000 persons.

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