Mushroom Farming: The Fungal Goldmine

By Muhammad Zeeshan Farid & Dr Amjad Farooq

A global trend in agriculture has been a shift away from simple systems that rely on traditional crops, to those that increasingly seek new varieties of plants that cater to advanced dietary needs. To this end, scientists and growers have recommended several new crops that can augment the spectrum of agricultural produce.

Mushrooms, known locally as “khumbi”, are among this emerging cropping system. Mushrooms are essentially fungi, a group of organisms distinct from plants, animals and bacteria. They convert inedible plant waste into palatable food, which is savoured due to its biting texture and flavour. They form a complete diet as mushrooms contain essential vitamins and minerals, and are the best substitute for protein. They also contain traces of carbohydrates and fat.

Dr Amjad Farooq works as an assistant professor at the Department of Horticulture of the PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi. He explains that, according to estimates, there are more than 1,500 types of mushrooms found on planet earth – some of them are edible, but others are poisonous. The four most popular types are the button or European mushroom, the Japanese mushroom, the Chinese mushroom and the oyster mushroom. The best quality mushrooms available in Pakistan are the oyster mushroom, the white mushroom, the golden oyster mushroom, the phoenix (grey) oyster mushroom and the pink oyster mushroom. These strains grow all over the country, and are available usually after the monsoon season.

Mushrooms can be cultivated between October and March. Cultivation does not require land and can be grown in small houses and huts as a part-time activity. Mushroom cultivation does not require full time-labour, and all family members can look after different operations easily. There are two modes of propagation for a mushroom crop: open-air field cultivation and controlled cultivation.

After seven days of cultivation, small pin-like heads emerge from the mushroom, which turn into more mushrooms after three to five days. Branches which grow five to seven inches long, called flushes, are removed from the plants and dried. These can be used in cooking, or can be sold in the market. Flushes keep regenerating from the plant after every ten days of the removal of old ones: the cycle is very short, and as a result, highly productive.

“A single flush or branch of mushroom can yield more than half a kilogramme (kg) of edible food after each week for three months,” says Dr Muhammad Nadeem, from the Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF).

Thus, 100 beds of mushroom can yield more than 120kg of mushrooms a week. At the rate of Rs150 per kg, they can generate a lump sum profit of Rs18,000 a week, or Rs72,000 in a month. Dr Nadeem says the “production of mushrooms touches approximately 1.5 million tons in the world, while about 90 tons of mushrooms are exported to Europe from Pakistan every year.”

Oyster mushrooms currently sell for around $6 a pound in the US. A growing area of around 200 square feet can produce 800 pounds per crop; or 5,000 pounds of mushrooms per year. This is worth almost $30,000 at current prices. It’s clear that growing oyster mushrooms for profit is a great way to make some extra cash.

However, it should be kept in mind that, given the large variety of poisonous strains of mushrooms, spawn should be developed only under the supervision of experts. It is available at the UAF, the National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, the Ayub Agricultural Research Institute and other government research stations.

Farmers who wish to cultivate mushrooms should book spawn well before the cultivation season, because it may not be readily available during the peak demand period. The UAF laboratory has developed some thermo-tolerant strains of the most widely grown button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) and the oyster mushroom (Pleurotus cystidiosus).

As basic training is required for profitable mushroom cultivation, the Continuing Education Department of the UAF offers a short course suited for farmers. Furthermore, the UAF’s Mushroom Lab can be contacted for guidance and information, and it can give proper suggestions and recommendations to those willing to invest in this lucrative business.

Source: The express tribune

Published on: 10/01/2012

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Genomics to improve farming

By Ijaz Ahmad Rao

Biotechnology is having an increasingly important impact on various sectors and disciplines. Combined with genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, biotechnology can greatly aid our ability to confront the challenges of production, management, and sustainability of agriculture and economic development.

It can enhance crops yield and quality, develop stress-tolerant crop varieties, improve nutritional content of foods and neutralise effect of food contaminants, and find new ways to face threats to bio-security.

These issues were discussed at a recent international symposium on “Genomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics: Recent Trends in Biotechnology” held by the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics (MMG), University of The Punjab, in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission, National Biotechnology Commission, Core Group in Biological Sciences.

More than 190 delegates, some from Europe, participated in the symposium whose main objective was to provide new ways to use animal, plants and microbes, in order to improve quality of environment and economic sustainability of a country, to commercialise indigenous technologies and to help bridge the gap between global scientific communities in terms of existing and expanding frontiers of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics.

Environmental and political considerations have created a growing demand for plants-derived bio-fuels like ethanol and bio-diesel. It is appropriate that Pakistan should support research efforts in genomics and proteomics. It has enormous potential in agricultural both in cropping and livestock sectors. There is a need to fill actual productivity and potential productivity gap by adopting appropriate strategies and modern technologies to meet such problems as low resource use efficiency in agriculture, land degradation, water-logging and salinity, low organic matter, and low level of technology.

Despite continued progress in genetic improvement, optimal levels of crop productivity or desirable nutritional balance has not yet been achieved. Seed metabolism must be modified substantially to produce food-feed as well as industrial and medical products to satisfy future evolving societal demands. Such modifications need integration seamlessly into the complex but poorly understood processes of seed metabolism and development. Genomics offer new opportunities to address seed performance and productivity, to develop nutritionally desirable seeds, and to achieve industrial and pharmaceutical applications.

Collaborations between genomic researchers and plant breeders are crucial to enhance crops yield. With the help of tools of modern biotechnology and methods of genomics and proteomics, our future challenges of food, feed and energy sectors can be addressed. This new knowledge will change the future of breeding for improved strains of all domesticated species of crops, livestock, fish, and trees either through transgenomics or genomics-based conventional breeding.

“The first plant genome that has been completely sequenced is a small model species, Arabidopsis thaliana. The genomic sequencing of economically important crops is also being undertaken”. The most advanced are the several public and private gene sequencing projects on rice, all of which are now in the public domain. A maize genome-sequencing project is also in progress. Rice, maize and other cereals share a large number of common genes.

Several other genome sequencing projects of at least 130 different plant species are in progress. The plant genetic resources are the vital components of plant biodiversity, precious heritage of mankind, therefore they need to be collected and conserved before they are lost for ever.

There are about 6,000 plant species in Pakistan; out of these only 1,010 species are identified as having medicinal value. Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) established a “gene bank” at the Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resources (IABGR) and the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), which contains more than 30,000 genes and DNA of different plant species. The germplasm of major cereals, minor cereals, food legumes, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, fiber crops, fodder and forages and medicinal plants are available from this ‘gene bank” for scientists and researcher for the development of new varieties. More recently PARC has established with NARC a new institute the National Institute for Genomics and Advance Biotechnology (NIGAB); which will conduct research on structural and functional genomic of both plants and animals.

In Pakistan, there are hundreds of scientists working at more than 29 centres conducting biotech research in different areas. These institutions have, to their credit, a number of major achievements in modern biotechnology. A few of them have developed plant expression vectors for the introduction of foreign genes into crops like Bt pesticidal genes used in cotton and rice against bollworm, rice leaf-folder, top leaf bore in sugarcane.

The use of new techniques for understanding and modifying the genetically modified organisms (GMO) has led to understanding the role of proteins through proteomics and metabolomics in order to have better knowledge of multi proteins expressed in a particular plant in specific environmental condition. These developments have been accompanied by public concerns as to the power of the new technologies and the safety and ethics of their use for improving human health, agriculture and the environment.

Scientists are trying to explore how genetics and environmental factors work together to cause human diseases which can be helpful in the prevention and treatment of many illnesses and as well as individualise the therapeutical strategies. There are extensive efforts under way to identify the genetic and environmental basis of common diseases like cancer, asthma and diabetes. The present challenge is how emerging scientific discoveries, such as those in the rapidly evolving fields of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, amongst others, can be translated into safe applications leading to new varieties of crops, drugs and products.
Courtesy: The DAWN

 

Source: http://www.pakissan.com/english/advisory/biotechnology/genomics.to.improve.farming.shtml

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New Agri-Technology

A new method of rice farming

New Delhi: In Kerala, where paddy cultivation is going out of favour because of labour problems and high costs, the novel System of Rice Intensification’ (SRI) has shown the potential to rehabilitate this crop.

This innovative technique ensures substantially higher productivity and lower input use. The SRI system has, in fact, proved its utility in many other regions as well, spanning Sikkim in the north-east to Tamil Nadu in the south.

The environment-friendly SRI method of growing rice involves transplanting relatively young paddy seedlings (eight to 10 days old instead of usual 20 days or more), along with the soil that contains their roots. The spacing between plants and rows is kept relatively wide at around 25 cms to provide room for the robust growth of both root and plant.

Plant nutrients are supplied largely through farm-yard manure, supplemented with need-based fertiliser applications. The most significant aspect of SRI is that the fields are not kept submerged under water all the time, as is usual in rice farming, but are allowed to remain just wet without flooding.

The success of SRI technology in most places where it has been tried in the past few years has led to its promotion in a big way by Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs or agricultural science centres) and other farm research bodies under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). What makes the SRI method an instant hit with paddy growers is the saving of almost all key inputs (water, seed, fertilisers, pesticides and labour), and a perceptible spurt in crop productivity, which has, of late, tended to stagnate at many places.

The saving on water, which is rapidly turning scarce in most paddy-growing tracts, can be 30 to 40 per cent or more; that of costly seeds over 50 per cent. The reduction in the requirement of other inputs varies according to field conditions.

Higher crop yields in SRI fields are attributed to several factors. Since the seedlings are planted along with the soil in which these are growing, it helps the undisturbed roots to develop more profusely and enables it to tap more nutrients from the soil. This, in turn, facilitates a larger number of tillers (shoots) per root-system, vigorous plant growth and, more importantly, longer panicles (ear-heads) to accommodate more grain per plant.

Moreover, the fact that the seedlings are planted in wide-apart rows makes it easier for farmer to remove weed and other rogue plants that normally compete with the main crop for extracting nutrition from soil.

SRI fields also have a lower incidence of pests and diseases, mainly on account of lower humidity because the fields are not kept inundated. Overall crop yields have been found to surge by anywhere between 20 and 100 per cent over those obtained with normal cultivation practices.

The introduction of the SRI technique in different states has shown that it works well with both high-yielding varieties and local varieties of paddy. In east Sikkim, for instance, where farmers tend to grow only traditional varieties, such as Attey, Krishnabhog and Dudhetulsi, the new method enabled farmers to bag, on average, over 23 quintals of grain per hectare, against 19.6 quintals with conventional method, in kharif 2009-10. Farmers earned an average net return of around Rs 25,550 per hectare, more than double the production cost of Rs 10,950, according to sources in the KVK run by the ICAR Research Complex for the north-eastern hilly region, located in East Sikkim district.

In the Nellanad area of Thiruvananthapuram, where the SRI technology has been introduced by the local KVK in collaboration with the Coimbatore-based Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, farmers have reportedly reaped a paddy harvest of nearly 7 tonnes per hectare, against the state’s average crop productivity of 3 to 3.5 tonnes a hectare. This has spurred the state government to include the promotion of SRI in its overall agricultural development policy. Kerala’s example can surely be emulated elsewhere.

Similar encouraging results have been reported from Tamil Nadu’s key paddy belt in the Mettur dam command area where the uncertainty over the release of canal water from this dam has been posing problems for paddy growers. With the SRI technique, farmers can manage comfortably with whatever water is available.
Courtesy: Business Standard

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New farming techniques produce more food, while protecting land in Nicaragua

New farming techniques produce more food, while protecting land in Nicaragua

Aug 22, 2012

Indigenous people in Nicaragua's Rio Coco region bring their harvest downstream.
Photo: ACT Alliance/CWS/Don Tatlock

Even in the face of the grinding poverty that is a fact of life for indigenous people living in climate-challenged regions of northern Nicaragua, some families are not just using new techniques to grow bigger and better crops, but also working to generate income by selling their surplus produce.
That was the message from a delegation from Nicaraguan organization Christian Medical Action, AMC, in a recent visit to partner Church World Service (CWS), a longtime supporter of AMC's work in the Central American country and a member of ACT Alliance. The delegation was in Washington, D.C. to attend a conference.
Francisco Gutierrez, programme officer and a former executive director of AMC, told of how in 2005, 30 children in the Rio Coco area of northern Nicaragua faced starvation because rats had eaten all the food. AMC intervened with emergency food and also provided seeds, animals and technological assistance to struggling families in the community. As a result, malnourished children at risk for permanent physical and mental developmental defects have regained their health, and nutritionally diverse crops are thriving on farms and in family gardens.
AMC leaders attribute the progress toward food security in a region challenged by climate change and weather disasters – like Hurricane Mitch in 1998 – to the families' embrace of programs aimed at training, teaching and transfer of technology.
"I have learned that there is a lot of capacity and knowledge in this population," says Gutierrez. "The people here only need support so that they can develop their capabilities."
That is precisely what is happening at six CWS-supported demonstration farms, where some 5,000 people already have learned sustainable farming techniques ranging from organic pest control to crop diversification and soil conservation. These model farms include food storage facilities, a water source, seeds and tools, animal spaces, and plots for growing fruit, grains and vegetables.
Program participants then share what they already know from experience and what they have learned at the demonstration farms with other farmers and gardeners in their communities and beyond. AMC also promotes sustainable agriculture techniques in Matagalpa, an impoverished area of central Nicaragua. Already, the expertise gained by people in the Matagalpa communities is being transferred to indigenous people along the Rio Coco river who own land but lack the techniques necessary to get the most from that valuable resource. The Rio Coco program, implemented by AMC, is supported by CWS through the Foods Resource Bank.
"These demonstration farms empower communities to draw upon their own knowledge to help themselves," says Gutierrez. The net result is the kind of broad information and experience sharing that is reaching beyond either Matagalpa or Rio Coco to help AMC and its partners in other areas develop a regional strategy for improving food security.
Some 80 landless participants in the program in Matagalpa are working land owned by AMC, under a program that facilitates their actual purchase of the land over a period of years. The land grant program is also supported by CWS CROP Hunger Walk funds. Gutierrez says that several families actually have completed the purchase of their land over the past seven years.
With the greater crop yields resulting from smarter farming comes a larger amount of surplus produce not needed for family meals that could be sold to earn income to pay for other necessities. To that end, Gutierrez says AMC is lobbying the government to support efforts to help people get their goods to market for sale.
And what would success look like for communities participating in the program? The security of access to nutritionally diverse food throughout the year, the ability to sell surplus food at a fair price, and increased awareness of the need to protect the environment even as the personal and economic needs of families and communities are being met.

This article originally appeared at Church World Service (CWS). To view the original article

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