Production and economic analysis of paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella volvaceae)

Introduction

Mushrooms are fruiting bodies of flesh fungi which can be seen with naked eyes (Chang and Miles, 1992) [3] . Mushrooms have no chlorophyll, so they can't synthesize their own food. Therefore they have to depend upon outside sources for nutritional requirement. Paddy straw (Volvariella volvaceae) mushroom is one of the popular mushrooms grown in India. Paddy straw mushroom is the third most important mushroom cultivated in the world. Nationally, the total contribution of Odisha to mushroom production is 11 percent (Ojha et al., 2025) [7] . Paddy straw mushroom belongs to the phylum basidiomycota, order agaricales and family pluteaceae (Singer, 1961) [8] . It can be grown during the month of February to August. It can be grown within temperature range of 25-35 °C and relative humidity of 75 to 80 percent. Mushrooms are rich in Vitamin C, Vitamin D, B-complex, minerals and proteins [Caglarirmak, 2007] [1] . Paddy straw is the main substrate for growing straw mushroom. Paddy straw mushrooms are efficient lignin degraders which can be grown on different agricultural wastes. The substrates on which paddy straw mushroom can be grown include banana leaves, rice bran, wheat bran, sugarcane baggage, wheat and rice straw, cotton wastes etc. (Tripathy, 1999; Cangy and Peerally, 1995; Maurya et al. 2016) [9,2,5] In order to know the economic aspects of paddy straw mushroom cultivation, the present investigation was carried out to cultivate paddy straw mushroom commercially, analyzing costs involved in mushroom production, calculate the profitability of mushroom production, determining benefit cost ratio so that students can build up confidence to become a successful entrepreneur for paddy straw mushroom production.

Materials and Methods

The present study was conducted in a temporary mushroom production unit, Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Chiplima, Sambalpur during January to April, 2024. Eleven (11) Nos of students under Experimental Learning Programme (ELP) were involved in carrying out the present work. Mushroom spawn was prepared in the laboratory of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Chiplima, Sambalpur by the methods given below-

Spawn preparation

Disease free undamaged wheat grains were collected and washed thoroughly in tap water and soaked overnight in water. Then grains were boiled, drained off excess water and mixed with calcium carbonate at the rate of 2% on dry weight basis of the grains.

The grains were filled into glucose bottle, plugged with nonabsorbent cotton and sterilized in autoclave at 121 °C for 30 min. Grains were then inoculated with actively growing mycelium of Volvariella volvaceae maintained on potato dextrose agar slants at 4 °C and incubated at 25 °C for mycelial growth until the mycelium fully covered the grains (Modified method of Michael et al., 2011) [6].

Mushroom bed preparation

Golden coloured disease free paddy straw were freshly collected from students' plot, College of Agriculture, Chiplima and used as cultivation substrate for bed preparation of paddy straw mushroom. Paddy straw were made into bundles of 45 cm length. For the purpose of making a bed, 14 bundles of paddy straw were used. The bundles were soaked in a water tank containing 100 liter of water and 10 g carbendazim for about six hours. Then straw was taken out from water tank, drained off excess water and dried to maintain 60 percent moisture in the substrate. On an elevated platform of bamboo structure, four soaked bundles were kept on one side lengthwise close to each other. Spawn was placed over the straw 3 to 4 inches inside the margin leaving a space of 5 cm from each other. Then small quantity of gram powder (besan) was sprinkled over the spawn bits. Four bundles of straw were placed in opposite direction of the first to prepare second layer. Spawn and gram powder were sprinkled in the same way as mentioned above. Third layer was prepared by putting another four bundles of the straw in the opposite direction of second layer. Then spawn and gram powder were sprinkled over the third layer. Another two bundles of straw were placed in opposite direction of third layer to cover the spawn. Then transparent polythene sheets were used to cover the beds for one week. When pinhead was emerged, polythene cover was removed. Watering was done as and when required to make the beds moist. First flush was harvested 14 days after bed preparation. Total yield of mushroom from each bed was weighed and recorded immediately after harvest.

Economic analysis of mushroom production

The cost items in the mushroom production includes different types of fixed costs and variable costs.

Fixed costs

Fixed cost include costs of items whose economic life is more than one year. They include mushroom production shed, sprayer, chaff cutter, weighing balance etc.

Variable costs

They include cost of mushroom spawn, polythene to cover mushroom beds, wheat grains, gram powder (besan), packaging materials etc.

Depreciation on fixed capital

The depreciation rates for different farm assets were taken as @ 10% per annum.

Net Profit

Net profit = Total revenue-total expenditure for one crop

Total revenue Benefit cost ratio (BCR) = Total cost

Results and Discussion

Yield of mushrooms for three consecutive months from March to May, 2024 was recorded to study effect of temperature and relative humidity on yield of paddy straw mushroom and data are presented in Fig. 1. Data revealed that highest yield of mushroom was recorded in the month of March (30.50 kg) followed by April (20.50 kg). Maximum yield of mushroom was recorded in the month of March when optimum temperature (between 28 °C to 35 °C) and relative humidity prevailed. Minimum yield (13.27 kg) was recorded in the month of May due to high temperature (above 40 °C) and low relative humidity. It can be assumed that due to high temperature mushrooms dried up before reaching to maturity which ultimately resulted in less yield.

The data clearly shows that yield of paddy straw mushroom is highly influenced by temperature and relative humidity.

The findings are in line with the observations obtained by Chitra et al., 2018 [4] who reported that high temperature and low humidity resulted in low yield of oyster mushroom in Tiruchirrapalli.

In order to know whether mushroom cultivation is a profitable business or not, economic analysis of mushroom production was done and presented in Table 1. The total cost of cultivation for mushroom production was found to be Rs. 8578/-. From 126 Nos of beds total 64.27 kg of mushroom was produced. Considering the selling price of mushroom @ Rs. 300/-per kg, total revenue of the production of 64.27 kg mushroom was found to be Rs. 19281/-. Net Profit was found to be Rs. 10703/-. Benefit cost ratio was calculated to know the economic viability of mushroom production. Benefit cost ratio was found to be 2.24. This indicates that cultivation of paddy straw mushroom is a profitable business. Paddy straw mushroom can be harvested within a very short time (14 days).

Mushroom can be grown very easily which requires little space for cultivation. Paddy straw are very easily available locally at low cost. Processing of mushroom along with better packaging materials will help to increase the shelf life of mushroom which ultimately increase income of the farmers. In this paper, it was demonstrated that cultivation of paddy straw mushroom is a profitable enterprise. So, the farmers can be encouraged to go for cultivation of paddy straw mushroom which can give them additional or alternative source of income.

References

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