MUSHROOM CULTIVATIONIN RELATION TO VERTICAL FARMING: A BOOMING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Abstract

Vertical farming is the practice during which the crops are grown in a vertically stacked layers or integrated skyscraper or old warehouse etc. with use of less water and in the absence of soil. Vertical farming has many advantages viz. there is reliable crop production round the year, unaffected by adverse climate. It also minimises the use of water and uses space in a better way, provides completely organic yield, reduces transport costs,provides pesticide free cultivation, low labour cost and highly energy efficient crop.[7]There are many factors now-a-days which are demolishing the food availability and can cause a worse situation in future. The war between Russia and Ukraine may be one of thosefactors which can lead the globe to a severe food scarcity due to their high export-import value in India and other countries. Hence, it is important to go for another opportunity for food production.A large amount of agro-wastes are produced every year which is burnt by farmers and deteriorate the air quality and soil quality as well. Instead, we can use that as a substrate for creating compost for mushroom cultivation. For mushroom cultivation, vertical stands are required that solve the problem of lessavailability of land area. In small areas withless amount of water, mushrooms can easily be grown and canhelp in the economic growth of the country. In some states of country, due to flood, nutrient of the soil sweeps away and thus crops cannot be grown there. In those areas, cultivation of mushrooms can be agood alternative to get earnings.Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of some members of a lower group of plants called fungi. The fungi are characterized by the absence of chlorophyll and undifferentiated bodies except the spore bearing structures. Man started agriculture 10,000 years ago.The Chinese were reportedly the first to artificially cultivate tropical and sub-tropical mushrooms around thousands of years back but commercial production started in Europe with button mushrooms in caves during 16th and 17th centuries. Now, mushroom cultivation has spread all over the world. In India,mushrooms are being cultivated in every State. Government and Central government have launched many schemes to support farmers and youth to start with cultivation of mushrooms. Awareness programmes have been launched to make people aware about the nutritive and Entrepreneurship values of mushrooms. Through Mushroom cultivation, young generation and women can also set up small scale industry and start-ups and it is a growing era of start-ups in the field of mushroom cultivation and vertical farming [9][10][11][12].