Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Skill Development Programme on Mushroom Cultivation in Dzongu

GANGTOK, 10 June [PIB]: ICAR Sikkim Centre, Tadong, organized a three-day Hands-on Training on Scientific Oyster Mushroom Cultivation for the Livelihood Improvement of Tribal farmers at Passingdang, Upper Dzongu, North Sikkim under Tribal Sub Plan from 05 to 07 June, 2014.
More than 50 farmers from Passingdang and Hee-Gyathang participated in this important training programme. The training was organized both at Passingdang and ICAR Sikkim Centre, Tadong.  Scientists from ICAR Sikkim Centre delivered lectures on various aspects of mushroom cultivation.
Farmers were also invited to ICAR Sikkim Centre to gain practical knowledge on mushroom cultivation. They were allowed to participate in substrate preparation and mushroom bed making to get acquainted with mushroom cultivation under the supervision of scientists from ICAR Sikkim Centre.
Speaking in the inaugural session, Dr. RK Avasthe [Joint Director, ICAR Sikkim Centre] and chief guest of this training programme stated that mushroom has tremendous potential in Sikkim because of its high demand and nutritional value and also emphasized upon the importance of maintenance of proper hygiene and use of scientific techniques to get highest return from mushroom cultivation. He also said that it is one of the important healthy foods that contain less fat and more protein.
Dr. H Kalita [Principal Scientist (Entomology), ICAR Sikkim Centre] explained about the importance of organizing this training programme for the benefit of farmers and also delivered a lecture on insect pest management in mushroom production.
Dr. R Gopi [Scientist (Plant Pathology) and Primary Resource Person] spoke about the scientific oyster mushroom cultivation and disease management in mushroom. He also highlighted that oyster mushroom has high biological efficiency of more than 100 per cent depending upon the substrate combination and the manner in which the substrate has been managed during the growing season.
Dr. Ashish Yadav [Sr. Scientist (Horticulture)], Boniface Lepcha and Anushree Gogoi explained about the post-harvest management mainly processing, drying and storage of mushroom to prevent spoilage from contaminating molds and bacteria. Preparation of various dishes using mushroom such as mushroom soup and pickle and primary value addition procedure were shared with the growers at ICAR Sikkim Centre.
Earlier, Khorlo Bhutia [Principal Director, Horticulture and Cash Crops Development Department] and Dr RK Avasthe [Joint Director, ICAR Sikkim Centre] participated in the Review Meeting of the 3rd Regional Committee of ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region at Barapani, Shillong on 02 June.
Regional Committees are one of the highest decision making bodies of ICAR. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has placed the various states and UTs of the country on the basis of the climate into 8 Regional Committees. The basic aim of constituting these Committees is to review the status of agricultural research and education in the region and address the location specific issues of agriculture and allied sectors. Sikkim is a member of the 3rd Regional Committee along with other NE states.
In this meeting, Khorlo Bhutia presented the action taken report on the various actionable issues pertaining to progress on the establishment of College of Horticulture in Sikkim and others besides, presenting the first draft of the Handbook of Organic Production in Sikkim developed by Scientists of ICAR Sikkim Centre, Tadong and Spices Board, Tadong.

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