Mushroom — a nutritive food
MUSHROOM is a group of fungi endowed with the ability of convert inedible plant wastes into palatable food that is praised for characteristic biting texture and flavour. The most nutritious mushrooms are almost equal in nutritional value to meats and milk. Mushrooms occur under various ecological conditions from desert to forest. They comprise a large heterogeneous group with different shapes, sizes, colour and edibility. Of the 2,000 known species, only 20 are commercially cultivated.

Farmers share experiences
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, with the cooperation of the Punjab Naujwan Kisan Sanstha, Ferozepore unit, organised its annual field day meeting at Karnikhera village, 5 km from Fazilka. About 200 progressive farmers and horticulturists of Ferozepore district participated in the meeting presided over by Dr J.S. Kolar, Director, Extension Education.

Soil testing lab awaits equipment
The building of the Soil and Water Testing Laboratory-cum-Bee-keeping Centre at Jalalabad is complete for the past about five months, but is still awaiting the arrival of the required equipment and posting of staff to launch its operations.

Emerging areas of farm financing
By S. C. Dhall

ABOUT 30 years have passed since the Green Revolution. Now we are a globally linked economy, there is the WTO, and there are linkages for our agriculture in terms of agro-exports, the world is entering the patent regime, and we have to sustain our gains and we have to fight competitions. All these mean that we have to liberalise our farming economy.

At present agricultural investment is declining. The successive Five-Year plans have produced a falling percentage of agri-investments — from 31 per cent in the First Plan, it is 19 per cent in the Ninth Plan. Our economy future depends upon export are the potential growth area in future.

Agro-exports declined by a steep 20 per cent during 1998, which pulls down our general export growth. This calls for commercialisation of agriculture, which broadly means production with a market orientation. This is happening now in India but at a slow speed, as we are witnessing a gradual transformation from an integrated farming system to specialised enterprise for producing crops and animals for markets.

During the past five-six years, a large number of agri-business projects, known as high-tech projects, have targeted the export market, where sophisticated technology is used in production, processing and distribution. The high-tech technologies in agricultural are to increase the efficiency of production, enhance quality and ensure uniformity of products and make the Indian products globally competitive.

As in December, 1998, as many as 295 export oriented units, covering variety of products with a financial outlay of Rs 1230 crore, a bank loan of Rs 570 crore and a refinance assistance of Rs 370 crore were operating. The credit requirements of high-tech agricultural projects during the Ninth Plan are projected at Rs 14,000 crore.

According to the Ninth Plan the total credit requirements for agriculture are estimated at Rs 2,30,000 crore at the 1997 prices. Out of this the short-term credit requirement would be Rs 1,50,000 crore and long-term Rs 80,000 crore. This staggering amount not only involves problem of raising the money but also deploying sound delivery system so that credit flow reaches credit worth projects and persons.

It is time that we realise that poverty cannot be reduced by a tax cut alone. If one is really serious about reducing poverty, one has to make productive investment in agriculture, irrigation, rural infrastructure, and so on. Since no new land can be brought under cultivation, the present yield level of all the crops, particularly cereals and pulses, must double.

In order to increase capital formation in the Indian agriculture where the share of the GDP declined from a peak of 14 per cent in 1979-80 to 8 per cent, there is the need to attach much more importance to infrastructural development through both public and private investments.

According to study conducted by Dr N.B. Shete of the National Institute of Bank Management, Pune, though the production of wheat and rice increased substantially as a result of the Green Revolution, there is large disparity among various states. If the gains achieved by Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are excluded, the growth rate in the remaining states has been much less at around 1.7 per cent per year. Productivity of crop is also low as compared to other countries.

Rapid economic growth during the past 30 years has created many problems in agricultural development. It has deteriorated the quality of the basic economic resources like land, water, forest and fishing grounds, while a large part of the population is still living in absolute poverty. Besides, the quality of economic resources social, economic and political environments are also equally important.

The hybrid seed business in India alone needs Rs 3000 crore investment. It is anticipated that hybrid seed requirements by 2000 are 165 million kg, whereas at present we produce only 110 million kg of seeds annually.

The 1999-2000 Budget has earmarked for agriculture Rs 5994.66 crore — a 35 per cent increase than that of 1998-99 Budget where it was Rs 4809.82 crore.

It is estimated that the current trends in agricultural growth will not be sufficient to meet the requirement of food to the order of 230 million tonnes for the projected population of 1000 million by the end of this century.

Agricultural scientists concede that any efforts to increase production with the intensification of existing technologies will lead to further degradation of land and the shrinking natural resources base. This means the productivity of rainfed crops must increase to at least double than the present level.

Mushroom — a nutritive food
By Raj Kumar and K.R. Aneja

MUSHROOM is a group of fungi endowed with the ability of convert inedible plant wastes into palatable food that is praised for characteristic biting texture and flavour. The most nutritious mushrooms are almost equal in nutritional value to meats and milk. Mushrooms occur under various ecological conditions from desert to forest. They comprise a large heterogeneous group with different shapes, sizes, colour and edibility. Of the 2,000 known species, only 20 are commercially cultivated.

The world production of mushroom has been grown in the past 15 years by four times. Although, today mushroom is being cultivated in more than 100 countries with an estimated total production around 5 million tonnes, it is mostly located to Europe (55 per cent), North America (27 per cent) and eastern Asia (14 per cent).

The Indian scenario today is much more encouraging with an overall increase in production by five times during the last decade. Since most of the growing units are not registered anywhere, there is no central system of monitoring of mushroom production. However, the present level of production of white button mushroom in the non-organised sector is estimated to be about 2100 metric tonnes. Of this presently about 80 per cent production comes during the winter season. During the current season, the estimated production is likely to cross 27,000 tonnes. However, this quantity is too small, if the vast market potential of the country is to be fully exploited.

It is now fully recognised that mushroom is highly nutritive — a good quality protein, vitamins and minerals. The average Indian diet is primarily cereal based and abundant in calories, but it is highly deficient in protein. Widespread malnutrition, particularly in children and women of the vulnerable groups, is the biggest nutritional problem in our country. Mushroom contains 20 to 35 per cent protein (dry-weight basis) which is higher than in vegetables and fruits and as per recent studies are as good as animal protein. Mushrooms are rich in lysine and tryptophan, the two essential amino acids that are deficient in cereals. Keeping in view the declining per capita availability of pulses, mushroom fits in very well in the diet of predominantly vegetarian population of our country for bridging the “protein gap”. Mushroom has been recognised by the FAO as good contributor to the protein nutrition of the countries depending on cereals.

In addition to good quality protein, mushroom contains fairly good amount of the vitamin C and vitamin B complex group. Folic acid and vitamin B12 which are so much needed by the pregnant and lactating women and are almost absent in vegetable food, are present in mushroom. It are also a good source of minerals. However, it is particularly rich in phosphorous, potassium and iron but are low in sodium. About one-third of the total iron in mushroom is in available form. On the basis of all these qualities, the nutritional value of mushroom as compared to some common vegetables appear to be quite high.

Pharmaceuticals worth $ 700 million are produced annually in Japan from lentinus, coriolus, schizophyllum and ganoderma. Mushroom’s extract have a high amount of retene that has an antagonistic effect on some forms of tumour. Some mushroom extracts induce formation of interferons, a defence mechanism against viral infections and have hypocholesteroemic activity )lowering cholesterol levels).

Besides its nutritional value, the way it is cultivated today is much more important. Their indoor cultivation utilising the vertical space is one advantage in view of the increasing pressure on agricultural land due to fast expanding civilisation and population growth. Secondly it can be cultivated on a wide variety of cheap and waste materials, including agricultural by-products and wastes, industrial wastes and even family wastes.

It offers employment opportunities in rural areas. Mushroom growing is a women-friendly operation. Women in farming system contribute a high percentage of the labour in the field, especially in the developing countries. There is a need to diversify the income opportunities available to women, to raise their productivity and lighten their workload. As women’s mobility is limited, technologies that can be followed on the homestead can provide them with additional food and income and thus enhance family welfare.

Mushroom has a huge potential for export due to expanding global market. There is a world market for 1.4 million tonnes mushroom per annum against which India’s exporting only about 2400 tonnes. The world demand is likely to go up to more than 2 million tonnes by 2000 AD. Despite several advantages of mushroom cultivation, the mushroom industry has not picked up desired momentum. Of the various factors that keep mushroom cultivation on slow track, inadequate knowledge about mushrooms and mushroom growing as well as poor cultivation have been the major constraints.

Farmers share experiences
By Praful Chander Nagpal

Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, with the cooperation of the Punjab Naujwan Kisan Sanstha, Ferozepore unit, organised its annual field day meeting at Karnikhera village, 5 km from Fazilka. About 200 progressive farmers and horticulturists of Ferozepore district participated in the meeting presided over by Dr J.S. Kolar, Director, Extension Education.

The meeting was an open session in which farmers and horticulturists shared their experiences and discussed problems in the presence of scientists of PAU.

Most of the farmers dwelt on input and output ratio, diversification of crops, realisation of more yield through horticulture, problems in cultivation of vegetables and other crops.

Prem Babber of Ghaniani village who got first prize for producing quality kinnows, stressed the need for field waxing of kinnows as it could be done easily by producers themselves. This would enhance the shelf life of kinnows and save transportation expenses to kinnow waxing plants. Babber, who is running a horticulture marketing advisory service and delivers radio talks, demanded that high yield, pest-resistant variety of cotton should be developed by PAU.

Mohinder Partap Dhingra of Mohammad Pira village shared his experiences relating to the production of quality Indian ber. He demanded introduction of high-yield variety seed of wheat.

Surinder Kumar Ahuja and his two young sons, who took the initiative of organising the meeting at their farmhouse in Karnikhera village, narrated their experiences of drip irrigation being successfully carried out there.

Nirmal Singh, a farmer and honey producer of Jalalabad subdivision, disclosed methods of bee-keeping and producing quality honey.

Other farmers suggested cultivation of hybrid varieties of chillies and producing its valuable seeds.

Dr Kolar said the university had not been able to find alternative to the cotton crop. He advised farmers to desist from early cultivation of paddy and described it a dangerous trend as it became pest prone and resulted in low yield. He suggested to stop haphazard and extensive use of pesticides on cotton crop.

Discussing the issue of marketing of crops, fruits and vegetables, Dr Kolar wanted the farmers to develop cooperative marketing services.

An attractive exhibition of kinnows, plums, peaches, pear, amla, Indian ber and honey was held at the venue.

Soil testing lab awaits equipment
By Ashok Grover

The building of the Soil and Water Testing Laboratory-cum-Bee-keeping Centre at Jalalabad is complete for the past about five months, but is still awaiting the arrival of the required equipment and posting of staff to launch its operations.

The project of establishing the laboratory was envisaged during the Congress regime of Mr H.S.Brar. The government had identified 14 places in Punjab for the project.

Jalalabad is a backward area and located on the border with Pakistan. Farmers in the area still adopt orthodox means of cultivation and generally sow only two crops of wheat and paddy. The crop of paddy requires a huge quantity of water for irrigation. A very big number of tubewells have been installed in the region. There is not a single soil and water testing lab in the area. Generally the tubewells are installed without testing the ground water.

If “unfit” water is used for irrigation it can make the land barren, which at present is the major problem of the area. Secondly, the water table in the area has gone down to about 30 ft. Now the farmers have to dig a deep well of about 30 ft to install the pump set and if the water comes out to be unfit this leads to an economic loss to farmers.

The case is no different with the soil in the area. The peasants generally are not aware of the exact quantities of fertilisers and other minerals required for a particular soil in order to get a good crop.

These were some of the major reasons which led to the establishment of the soil and water testing lab at Jalalabad.

Initially the project went off well as the then Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Hans Raj Josan, who also represented Jalalabad in the state assembly, made sincere efforts to get funds, but when the present government came to power the pace of fund allocation slowed down. Even after the completion of the construction work of the building it is for the third time that its inauguration has been postponed in the absence of lab equipment and required staff.

Wheat:

The last irrigation to the wheat sown after December 5 should be given in the first week of April 2. Do not irrigate on windy/stormy days.

Sugarcane:

— For the control of weeds, use bullock or tractor-drawn implements. However, for the control of “dila”, post-emergence application of 2, 4-D sodium salt 80 wp at 800 g per acre in 200-225 litres of water is recommended.

— Irrigate the sugarcane crop at seven to 12 days’ interval for getting better growth of the crop. Apply 65 kg of urea to ratoon crop. Irrigation may be given after the application of fertiliser.

— The attack of black bug in sugarcane can be checked by spraying 350 ml Thiodan 35 EC (Endosulfan) or 225 ml Sumithion / Folithion 50 EC (Fenitrothion) or 350 ml of Dussban 20 EC in 250 litres of water per acre. Direct the spray material into the leaf whorl.

— Do not ratoon the crop if it is severely affected with red rot, wilt or smut. Rogue out the smut- affected clumps and destroy.

Cotton:

— Start sowing cotton during the second fortnight of April using the F-1378, F-846, F-505 or LH-1134 varieties of American cotton or LHH-144, Fateh hybrids of American cotton; or LD-491, LD-327 of desi cotton.

— Treat seed of cotton (American and desi) before sowing to prevent primary seed-borne infection. Add 5 g Ceresan wet or 5 g Agallol or 2.5 g Tafasan or 5 g Aretan and either 1.3 g Streptocycline or 8 g Agrimycin- 100 in five litres of water and soak seed in it for six to eight hours. In the case of acid delinted seed soaking for two to four hours is enough.

—In wilt infested fields, prefer to sow the LD-327, LD-491 variety and LDH-11 hybrid of desi cotton.

— At the time of sowing, smear the cotton seed with gaucho 70 WS (imidacloprid) at 5 g/kg seed to prevent damage by cotton jassid.

— Sow both American cotton and desi cotton varieties in rows at 67.5 cm apart with a plant-to-plant distance of 30cm. However, for hybrids the plant-to-plant distance of 30 cm. However, for hybrids the plant-to-plant distance may be kept 60 cm.

— Apply 75 kg superphosphate per acre by drilling with last preparatory ploughing. If cotton follows wheat which received recommended dose of phosphorus, the application of phosphorus can be omitted to cotton. In poor soils, half dose of nitrogen (35 kg urea/acre) may be applied at the time of sowing.

— For controlling weeds, spray Treflan 48 EC, Shaktiman Triflurex 48 EC 1.0 one/acre per-plant incorporation or stomp 30 EC at one litre pre acre as per-emergence application in 250 to 300 litres of water. At the time of spray, there should be sufficient moisture in the soil. For controlling itsit which emerges with first irrigation, stomp at 1.0 one/acre can also be applied after the first irrigation.
(Progressive Farming, PAU)