Goa University signs MoU for button mushrooms

| 31 August 2002 22:22 IST

Goa University has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Zuari Foods and Farms Pvt Ltd from Canacona, for button mushroom production.

The Goa University has been engaged in the research, education and training in the area of mycology, the science of studying fungi, for over a decade. It has now taken a step forward in the field of industrial collaboration, to promote Fungal biotechnology, by signing the MoU with Zuari Foods, situated at Bhatpal in Canacona taluka, the pioneer of large scale button mushroom production in Goa.

The MOU was signed in the presence of Dr. Prakash Zacharias, the Vice Chancellor, Registrar Dr. Jayant Budkuley and Zuari Foods Vice Chairman Dr. Sangam Kurade. It will be executed by the special facility called Fungus culture collection and research unit (GUFCCRU), under the supervision of the project scientist and Mushroom biologist Dr Nandkumar Kamat. He belongs to the Botany department, headed by well-known tropical mycologist Dr. D. Jairam Bhat, who has spent several years to create university’s world class modern mycology laboratory.

One of the aims of the GUFCCRU is to collaborate with the corporate sector in research and development. The unit is working on the development of several new species of edible mushrooms. A strain of a medicinal fungus, popularly known as Judas’ ear or wood ear, has been successfully cultivated in the unit. This technology would be now transferred to the Zuari Foods.

The MOU also aims at long-term R&D collaboration and involves high quality mushroom spawn production. It would also help the university to develop indigenous technologies as export substitutes.

Speaking on the occasion, VC Zacharias expressed his desire to actively collaborate with the local industries. Dr. Kurade mentioned that this MoU also appreciated the step, stating that it would help his company to evaluate new strains and technologies. Dr. Tosha Kurade, prominent city pathologist and director of the company, was also present on the occasion.

The commercial and economic importance of the MOU could be understood from the global profile of the edible mushroom industry. As compared to USA, Korea, Japan, China and Holland, the Indian share in the global mushroom market is negligible. There is also less awareness among the people about the beneficial health and nutritional properties of the mushrooms. The general trend is to exploit the seasonally available wild edible mushrooms. Edible mushrooms are promoted in the world as gourmet and health foods with a global annual trade turnover touching $30 billions.

The most popular among the top ten commercially cultivated varieties is the button mushroom, scientifically known as Agaricus bisporus. Dr. Kurade, an expert in food technology, set up a modern button mushroom production plant in 1994 in Goa. The plant has been producing more than 300 metric tonnes of high quality button mushrooms, marketing it all over South India, including Goa.

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i want to know if there is any course in button mushroom cultivation, and where the spores of button mushroom r available.

- natasha marathe, margao | 26 th November 2012 17:15

Hearty Congratulations to the GOAN TECHNOCRATS for sphere-heading the cultivation and production of edible Mushrooms Industrial project at CANACONA Goa, which will meet with hygienic vegetable food requirements of many people in India. This will reduce to a good extent the scarcity of food resources of the Indian population. Today, for daily consumtion, the food resources are too costly. But in the wake of such type of food supplies even an average Indian family will be able to easily prepare their bare needs of daily foods requirement for a household. Once upon a time, the Goans themselves used to say CANACONA is a God foresaken place in the Goa's mountainous foresty lands. Waha ! now what an improvement has taken place in Canacona !!

- Desmond Gomes, Saudi Arabia | 15 th August 2010 14:19