Mushroom Cultivation

Mushroom Fortified Instant Rasam Mix is made with traditional spices like coriander seed powder, jeera powder, black pepper etc, along with tomato powder and fortified with 40% dehydrated Elm oyster mushroom powder. It is a value added product for enhancing the nutrition in the daily diet of the urban and rural population. This product has been standardized with an objective to add nutrition to a daily diet product ‘Rasam’ used daily in every South Indian home. Nutritional enhancement included 3.47% protein, 2.12% carbohydrate and 3.62% fibre content. Daily intake of this product will not only help in enhancing nutrition but can also enhance income of rural women who can start an entrepreneurial activity of producing this product as cottage industry.

Mushroom Fortified Instant Rasam Mix

The Arka Mushroom chutney powder technology relates to the usage of dry oyster mushroom for the production of mushroom chutney powder or chuteny podi which can be used for the nutrition enhancement of daily household diet both at rural and urban levels. It is a novel product to be consumed daily as a daily food accompaniment with any traditional Indian food. It is a ready to eat powder and can be easily adopted in mid day meals and defense food. It has a shelf life of 3 months in airtight containers/pouches at ambient temperature (26-28°C) which can be extended at lower temperature. It can be taken up as entrepreneurship by women SHGs, widows, disabled soldiers and other rehabilitation programs. Hence this technology will be of immense importance to enhance nutrition if adopted under nutrition programs and also help in income enhancement of rural women, widows, disabled people.

ARKA MUSHROOM FORTIFIED CHUTNEY POWDER

The Arka mushroom millet cookies technology relates to the usage of dry Elm oyster mushroom (Hypsizygus ulmarius) powder in combination with 5 different millet flours (sorghum or jowar or sorghum vulgare , pearl millet or bajra or Pennisetum glacum, corn or maize or Zea mays, finger millet or ragi or Eleusine coracana and little millet or sawai or Panicum sumatrense) for the production of mushroom millet cookies. Both mushrooms and millets are well known for their culinary medicinal properties. Blended or combination food or food products can be an important way to diversify the food plate and obtain balanced nutrition as well. Development of mushroom millet cookies is a step towards blending the nutritional goodness of mushrooms and millets for better taste and nutrition. This technology can also help in the development of entrepreneurship through the production of these products.

ARKA MUSHROOM MILLET COOKIES

It is production of iron fortified elm oyster mushroom (Hypsizygus ulmarius). ➢ The iron content of iron fortified mushroom has increased from 135.60ppm in non-fortified mushroom to 338.15ppm in iron fortified mushroom which is an increase of 149.37%. ➢ The bioavailability of iron from iron fortified mushroom is 21.68% which is very high as compared to iron bioavailability from plant sources which is 5-8% or from inorganic iron supplements which is 10-12%.

IRON FORTIFIED MUSHROOM

Vitamin D plays a vital role in maintaining overall physiological and biochemical well-being by supporting bone health through calcium absorption and regulating the immune system. Surprisingly, despite India's abundance of sunshine, a significant percentage (50-94) of its population suffers from a deficiency of this essential vitamin. Mushrooms offer a valuable source of ergosterol, a precursor that can be efficiently converted to vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) when exposed to sunlight or UVB radiation. To produce nutrient-labelled vitamin D rich mushrooms on a commercial scale, it is crucial to establish a standardized technique that ensures consistent production of these enriched mushrooms. Additionally, the amount of ergosterol present in mushrooms is specific to each species, requiring the development of species-specific protocols to facilitate commercialization. Thus, current research was focused on standardization of protocol for enriching vitamin D-rich Elm oyster mushrooms (Hypsizygus ulmarius). An indigenous, low cost UVB exposure device was designed and fabricated specifically for vitamin D enrichment for mushrooms under laboratory conditions.

VITAMIN D ENRICHMENT

Grain cleaner is for cleaning the grains by oscillating sieves. A grain boiler is operated by 9-12 kW electric power. The integrated grain mixer cum grain filler is for mixing boiled grains with chalk powder and filling spawn to pp bags. Spawn inoculator used inoculating mother, Generation-1, Generation-2 and commercial spawn has also been developed. These machineries have been developed for 170 kg per day of spawn production.

The use of machineries will reduce the labour requirement by 50%, power requirement by 60 % and labour efficiency is increased. The contamination of spawn is also reduced.

MUSHROOM SPAWN PRODUCTION MACHINERY

The overall dimension of the growing chamber is 1.35 x 0.93 x 1.69 m which is made up of 1” CPVC pipes and fittings.It is covered with nylon 40 mesh to protect the entry of insects and to facilitate the aeration.It is further covered with locally available gunny bag all around and it is wetted to maintain humidity inside the chamber. A 30 W DC misting diaphragm pump with 10 nozzles of 0.1 mm size to produce more than 100 bar pressure to get very fine misting inside the chamber. It can be operated either by electric power or using Solar power system with 300 W panel, inverter, 12V storage battery and a timer. The entire growing chamber is fitted inside a mild steel frame of 1.08 x 1.48 x 1.8 (side height)x 2.2 (centre height) with mobile wheels for easy mobility and transport. The solar panels are mounted on the roof top of the frame and inverter and battery are mounted and supported in the frame.A 30 litre water tank is fitted at the bottom side of the frame along with the misting pump. It was evaluated by growing two varieties of oyster varieties viz., 20 bags (1 kg) of Elm oyster and White oyster mushroom both at cropping room and outside chamber and the average yield recorded shows that there is an average increase of 108% in Elm oyster yield in mobile chamber in comparison to the cropping room yield. Similarly, an increase of 51% mushroom yield was recorded in white mushroom yield. The average monthly mushroom yield from this structure is 25-28 kg.

MUSHROOM GROWING UNIT

The mushroom bag holding chamber has an overall dimension of 1.5 × 1 × 1 m, fabricated using aluminum frames and fittings.It is covered with nylon 40 mesh which prevents the entry of insects and to facilitate the aeration. A layer of locally available gunny cloth covers the chamber externally and it is wetted to maintain humidity inside the chamber. The chamber can accommodate 36 bags of 1 kg or 2 kg capacity. A 30 W DC misting diaphragm pump used to wet the gunny bags to manage relative humidity through evaporative cooling inside the chamber.It can be operated either by electric power or using Solar power system with 300 W panel, inverter, 12V storage battery and a timer.The entire growing chamber is mounted on a tricycle frame.The tricycle is powered by a 48V, 750 W DC geared motor. A voltage controller and Lithium Ion battery of 24 Ah is used to store solar power to source DC power to geared motor and the mist pump. The solar panels are installed on the roof top of the frame.

SOLAR POWER OPERATED TRICYCLE CART