The climate of all districts in Himachal Pradesh is suitable to take minimum 2 crops of button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) under natural conditions for additional income generation for rural folks especially women. Quality mushroom compost and casing soil is prepared in the HRG unit at Village Dhangiara in District Mandi H.P. through short method of pasteurization. Annually 270-280 MT of spawned compost is supplied to 125-150 farmers in Mandi, Kullu, Kinnaur, Shimla and Hamirpur districts for mushroom cultivation to produce 50-60 MT of mushroom. Button mushroom cultivation technology provides 100-120% net profit in three months cropping cycle. Therefore, two cropping cycle of 1000 Kg/annum compost under suitable conditions of temperature 18-22 degree centigrade can yield net profit of Rs. 15000-18000 in three months time. Button Mushroom cultivation technology has been demonstrated successfully to more than 500 families since 2002 in five districts of Himachal Pradesh. As the land is a limiting factor and most of the farmers are marginal farmers and mushroom cultivation is an indoor activity with immediate returns to sustain the long terms agricultural diversification such as medicinal and aromatic plants cultivation. Six workers regularly earn their employment for 4-5 months at the compost unit and around 18-20 women earn average 7 days wages/month. The employment to the truck, jeep and mule owners was also provided in transportation. At the same time raw material supplier from Punjab also earned substantial returns for the supply of wheat straw and chicken manure.

Button mushroom cultivation is providing economic and employment opportunities to different sections of the society. Regular cultivation of button mushroom with quality supply of spawned compost with pasteurized casing soil and technical back up is motivating more and more young and enterprising youth. HRG is providing raw material and services in Mandi, Kullu, Shimla, and Kinnaur districts of Himachal Pradesh. The spent compost of mushroom is very good manure for agriculture fields and is also converted to vermicompost after mixing with dung. This helps in increasing the agriculture production and soil fertility.

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