Indian consumers may soon be eating home grown shiitake mushrooms, as Japanese researchers agree to collaborate with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) to share technology and information on the cultivation of the Japanese-specific delicacy. This collaboration will eventually make the staple ingredient in Japanese cuisine cheaper and more accessible to Indians.
Since the mushroom is grown in very small quantities in India, the demand for it is mostly met through imports from Thailand, Korea and China. As a result, the cost of 1kg of dried shiitake mushroom is almost Rs1,600 per kg.
On Saturday 2 July, a team of mushroom experts from Japan visited TNAU to discuss the transfer of technology for the cultivation of shiitake mushroom under local conditions. The technology and research will be transferred by YATS Corporation, a company already involved in farming shiitake mushrooms in many countries.
"The MoU is being signed as an initiative by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Indo-Japan collaboration in the field of science and technology," said professor and head of plant pathology department, A S Krishnamoorthy.
YATS Corporation will also provide technological support like manufacturing of sawdust blocks, incubation technology, growing of organic shiitake mushrooms by supplying high performance machines like, auto clave, mixer and auto packaging.
The department of plant pathology in TNAU has been researching growing techniques of this specific variety of mushroom for the last decade in their laboratories at Coimbatore, Nilgiris and Mettupalayam.
"We were mainly studying its climate requirements, substrate requirements, its demand in the local market and ways to market it," said Krishnamoorthy. "We however have not yet started experimenting them on farmer's fields," he said. Shiitake mushrooms usually are known to require a warm and moist climate.
If farmers in India do start cultivating shiitake mushroom it is likely to benefit them economically because of the high price it demands in the market. "Mushrooms are mainly cultivated in Nilgiris and Kodaikanal, because they require a cool climate. But farmers here usually grow button mushrooms which earn about 200 a kg, compared to 1,600 a kg shiitake mushrooms fetch," said the professor.
(1 Indian Rupee=0.015USD)
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com