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ICAR-IIHR engaged in advanced mushroom cultivation and machinery devpt
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Tuesday, 04 February, 2020, 14 : 00 PM [IST]
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
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The ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, a premier institute under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, is now engaged in advanced mushroom cultivation, research and related machinery development. These include mushroom rasam and seven varieties of chutney powder.
The Institute developed value-added products with mushroom, including rasam, which is a licenced product, and this technology was transferred to six individuals.
“The objective of this rasam was that we wanted mushroom to be a part of an everyday meal. Whenever we discuss mushrooms, nobody remembers anything but Manchurian. But now, the concept of rasam, which is made of oyster mushroom, dehydrated and powdered, has caught the fancy of consumers across India. The shelf life of this powder is one year in refrigerated conditions is six months for outside storage,” said Dr Meera Pandey, principal scientist, division of plant pathology, ICAR-IIHR, told F&B News.
Now rasam is consumed in every home in the South, irrespective of the economic strata. Mushroom rasam powder is served for two purposes. One is to make mushroom a part of a daily diet. And the other is that mushrooms are highly perishable. So if one cultivates and exhausts the new markets, they could still have the option to go in the rasam technology from IIHR, which is an ICAR-funded research,” she added.
Moreover, efforts to include mushroom rasam into the mid-day meals of schools are on, as the institute is providing the much-needed insights on nutrition for children at different forums and to policy markers too.
Apart from mushroom rasam powder, the scientists developed seven different kinds of chutney using this in a combination with white and black sesame seeds, flaxseeds, moringa leaf, brahmi, coconut and groundnut, which again is a licenced technology from IIHR.
It took two years to standardise the basic recipe. Then it passed through a series of sensory evaluation tests so that people really like it. Sensory evaluation in mushrooms happens at the IIHR training programme, where the trainees are from across India country. So, it was a kind of sensory evaluation across all states. In fact, consumers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh refer to rasam as soup.
“Over and above, the processing of mushroom to value-added nutritious products, the institute has set up an advanced mushroom lab funded by various agencies. This lab is a one-of-a-kind and is the only one in India. Under one roof, there is conservation of wild species of mushroom, seed production, cultivation, post-harvest, value addition, training and demonstration, besides mechanisation,” said Dr Pandey.
Further, IIHR is the only one in India to develop machinery dedicated for mushroom seed production. One of the reasons why mushrooms have not gone across the country is because of the paucity of seeds, as farmers cannot make them. The process is labour-intensive, and warrants a lab with the mechanisation process.
In order to portray IIHR expertise, 17 labs were established across India installed with machines for spawn production. Specifically in Karnataka, five such labs have come up in the dedicated bio-centres. Now every nook and corner of Karnataka will have access to the seeds and be able to cultivate mushrooms.
There are also a number of enquiries for these machines from Africa, the Middle-East and Australia, where transfer of technology is pending.
Going forward, IIHR is focussing on new varieties of mushrooms, which are currently imported. These are the King Oyster and Shiitake mushroom, which are edible and medicinal. The cultivation technology for these are also standardised.
However, they are niche varieties and require some amount of investment, because it is not easy to cultivate them, unlike the oyster or other varieties. Rasam can also be made from King Oyster and Shiitake mushroom, after it has been dehydrated and powdered.
With a view to embrace zero maida during value addition, IIHR has now embarked on standardisation of mushroom millet biscuits. Biscuits will be either mushroom with sorghum or finger millet. It is also working on fortified mushrooms. These include enriched mushroom with Vitamin D, iron and calcium. So that when these mushrooms are powdered, it can become a part of our diets for specific deficiencies that need to be addressed.
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