The Hindu Business Line : Himalya seeks patent for mushroom substrate tech

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The firm has applied to the US authorities for provisional patent of the formula.
The American Mushroom Institute has taken note of the new technique.
US firm to get rights to use the formula for 5 years.

Kolkata , Sept. 29

A small Indian agro business company has turned an environmental challenge into an opportunity. The Rs 22-crore Himalya International Ltd, a Himachal Pradesh-based processor and exporter of mushroom, cheese and baby potato, has developed a process that not only solves the problem of disposing environmentally hazardous spent mushroom substrate — a medium on which mushrooms are grown — but also provides rich organic manure.

Seeks patent

Mr Man Mohan Malik, Managing Director of Himalya, told Business Line that company has applied to the US authorities for provisional patent of the organic formula developed by the company. "The application would immediately pre-empt any patent squatting. In the next 12 months, we would move for formal patent in the North and South American markets," he added.

Waste Disposal

The US mushroom industry, largest in the world, already has a major waste disposal problem at hand. Huge pile-up of disposable substrates that take two years to decompose under currently available technology has been threatening viability of industry itself. Apart from being a "costly" nuisance, the substrate waste dumps are also reported to have been causing leaching of salts (leachette) spoiling the groundwater. The American Mushroom Institute (AMI) has taken note of the new technique development by the Indian company.

Himalya International will wrap up a deal to sell the rights of its organic manure technology to a US-based mushroom and food processing company for $5 million. Under the 5-year deal, the US company will market the rights to use the Himalya's organic formula in the US, Canada and South America.

Organic Manure

Himalya spent 3 years of R&D on disposal of its used mushroom substrate in collaboration with a local consultant by the name Natura Technologies. The new process ensures faster break down of its effluents in a shorter period of time, only 45 days, by adopting a bio-dynamic composting technique. Himalya itself generates an annual waste of 15 tonnes of "spent compost" or substrates from its mushroom operations, besides the huge disposal from its vegetable and cheese processing activities.

The company will now convert all the organic waste of its food processing as well as newly installed cheese unit into organic manure rich in essential nutrients. It is embarking on an ambitious plan to use all its organic manure for organic produce by its contract farmers in Himachal Pradesh and expects decent earnings from the dissemination of this technology.

Himachal pollution control authorities have been breathing down its neck on groundwater pollution and obnoxious odour from its dumps.

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