Mushroom fair held in Solan

Tribune News Service

Solan, September 11

The 26th Annual Mushroom Fair was organised at the Indian Council of Agriculture Research’s Directorate of Mushroom Research (DMR) here yesterday. Various premium varieties of mushroom were displayed during the fair.

It is organised every year to celebrate declaration of Solan as the Mushroom City of India, where new varieties and their technicalities are shared with the growers.

The fair was inaugurated by former Shimla MP Virender Kashyap. He lauded the efforts of the DMR in popularising mushroom cultivation, which had tripled in the last few years.

Kashyap said the DMR played a key role in making quality mushroom seeds available to the growers across the country. He stressed on disseminating knowledge about medicinal mushrooms among growers to enhance its cultivation.

Priced at a lakh per kg, cordyceps mushroom particularly drew the attention of the visitors. The mushroom has anti-aging and anti-tumor properties, besides other health benefits.

DMR Director VP Sharma said that the cordyceps mushroom is highly priced for its medicinal properties. The directorate has been imparting training to grow this premium variety since past five years. Growers from Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Bihar, Uttrakhand, displayed various food products like biscuits, pickles at their stalls. They threw light on the health benefits of various varieties that they exhibited. Six progressive growers, including a woman grower, Pushpa Jha from Bihar, were honoured.

Special guests Manjit Singh, former director of DMR, and Dr Ajay Singh Yadav, Vice-Chancellor of Maharana Pratap Horticulture University, Karnal, also addressed the growers.

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