Oyster Mushroom Cultivation: a Women Friendly Profession for the Development of Rural West Bengal

Abstract

Mushroom cultivation is considered as an alternative source of income to uplift the living standards of poor farmers and also to add high quality protein in their daily diets to eradicate malnutrition problems. Pleurotus spp (oyster mushroom) can easily be grown by the rural women with minimum efforts. Training was imparted during 2008 and 2009 by the Department of Plant Protection, Institute of Agriculture, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan. The program focused on poor farmers having less than 0.5 ha of land. Training program included cultivation techniques, spawn preparation, substrates preparation, marketing of fresh product, preservation, etc. A total of 100 village women from four villages in two blocks of Birbhum district were selected for training. The knowledge level on cultivation method, food and nutritional value, economics of cultivation, profitability, etc. increased many folds after training. About 49% of trainees developed their skills in mushroom cultivation. While, 57% felt that mushroom cultivation is a profitable business and could be selected as an alternative business. An increase of 88% in total mushroom production and 89% increase in productivity were observed after training. Mushroom growers were increased from two to 19 after the training. The awareness program was very much successful in disseminating the knowledge of mushroom cultivation among the community which may contribute towards the overall development of the rural society.