INDIA
Mushroom cultivation around Delhi
While Magda and her team were exploring the foothills of the Himalaya, I visited some farms in and around Delhi with Martin van de Vorle van
Mushroom & Substrate Consultancy just before the ICMBMP8 conference. By Roel Dreve
T
his trip was also organised by Dr. Dhar from NN Mushroom Consult- ing India. His driver – absolutely perfect for the famous ‘Dakar
Rally’, but less suitable as a guide – navigated us through the often perilous traffic. Modern, climate-controlled mushroom farms are rare in the region surrounding the Indian capital; the most common are primitive, seasonal produc- tion sites operating from October-December similar to the ones we showed in the previous edition.
Swadeshi
Situated above a latex factory on Karnal Road in Delhi is Swadeshi Mushroom Spawn, which according to its owner Arun Bahl is the largest and best-equipped spawn producer in India.
Arun, who started life as a mushroom grower and founded Swadeshi in 1987, and his son Pranav welcomed us warmly. The company supplies all the strains of mushrooms grown in the country, although 99 percent of what is grown in India is the common white button, with oyster mushrooms coming in a long way after in second place.
The process is as follows: first of all wheat grains are boiled for 45 minutes, then dried for 30 minutes, after which this basis product is put into double bags with a ring and plug of cotton as a filter. This is then covered by a sheet of paper. A batch of 110 bags are then all placed into an autoclave for 90 minutes, 60 of which at 126 degrees Celsius. After sterilising and cool down, the bags are shaken under a laminar airflow. “We have virtually no contamination, maybe
Arun and Pranav Bahl (r and l) with Dr Dhar in the middle, in front of the latex factory.
Drying the cooked grain at Swadeshi Mushroom Spawn.
34 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
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