Commemorating the 24 th year of declaration of Solan as the Mushroom City of India,
ICAR-Directorate of Mushroom Research, Solan organized a Virtual National Mushroom
Fair on 10 th September, 2020. The Chief Guest of the fair was Dr. A K. Singh, DDG
(Horticulture Science), ICAR, New Delhi. Dr. Vikramaditya Pandey (ADG, Horticulture
Science-1) and Dr. B.K. Pandey (ADG, Horticulture Science-2) were the guest of honour
and Dr. Manjit Singh (Former Director, ICAR-DMR) was special guest of the programme.
Dr VP Sharma (Director, ICAR-DMR, Solan) presented the details on the
contributions of the Directorate in bringing the rapid transformation in the mushroom
production in India from a mere 40000 MT in 1994 to 210000 MT by 2019. The Chief Guest,
Dr. A K. Singh, DDG (Horticulture Science), ICAR, New Delhi applauded the efforts made
by Dr. V. P. Sharma, Director and his team to upscale the laboratory studies to the level of
commercial scale technologies. Dr. A K. Singh stressed upon the need for quality spawn
production and domestication of new edible mushrooms to enrich the diversity of edible
mushrooms. He also emphasized on need of export, value added products, diversification and
introducing new varieties of edible mushroom along with its popularization. The guest of
honour Dr. Vikramaditya Pandey and Dr. B. K. Pandey also had deliberations on the role of
mushrooms in doubling the farmers income and its ability to fight the problem of
malnourishment in the Indian population.
Dr. Satish Kumar, Principal Scientist, ICAR-DMR, Solan explained about the general
hygiene need to followed during mushroom cultivation. Dr. R.S. Rana (Dy. Director, NHB)
and Mr. Reshant (Manger, SBI, Solan) explained the details of the schemes of horticultural
and SBI for the benefit of the farmers. In addition, Virtual Kisan Goshthi was also organized
in which farmers, mushroom growers, and extension workers participated and interacted with
the scientists and experts of DMR on various mushroom related problems. Mushroom Fair
provided an opportunity to the farmers and mushroom growers to seek solutions to their
mushroom related problems. On this occasion 6 farmers ( A. Arunkumar, Tamilnadu;
Saurabh Janghel, Chattishgarh, Jagdish Chand and Naresh Singh Mankotia, Himachal
Pradesh; Dinesh Sahu, Odisha; Brahmacharimayum Khogen Sharma, Manipur) were
honoured for adopting innovative technologies and contribution made in mushroom
production. More than 530 farmers/mushroom growers/entrepreneurs of different states such
as Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand,
Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Orissa, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala and Andhra
Pradesh participated in the fair.
2020-09-10
