My Choice of Straw for Composting of Button Mushroom

The composting for the substrate production for the button mushroom involves selective breakdown of straw. In north India there is a choice among paddy straw, wheat straw, sugar cane bagasse and mustard straw.Each kind of material has its advantages as well as disadvantages.Each material is being discussed for its physical attributes, chemical composition and financial aspects.

Wheat Straw 

This is the most widely used material, the first choice of composting crew,but it is the most expensive too.The crop of wheat is harvested in the month of April and May.A big part of straw is also collected,chopped as fine material and stored.Then it is sold throughout the year as fodder for the cattle,mostly to the dairies as a popular cattle feed.The price is Rs2.50 to 3 per kg.after transport and unloading at the farm in Punjab, during harvest time, but keeps on increasing ,up to Rs 4 to 5 by September,and 6.50 to 7 by January. The moisture content during harvest time is 4% .During storage as the shining wax layer wane away, moisture can go up to 14%The straw is available in a blade size of 2 inches, and less,in length and mostly vertically splitted, as longer than this may hurt the palate of cattle.A large chunk of straw is burned by farmers who are too busy in harvesting and selling of grain.This is resulting in massive air pollution and loss of fertility of land.If the ban ordered by pollution boards is implemented, the straw collection would increase and prices may come down.

The bales of wheat straw with tubular structure, 12 inches long used in Europe,Australia and America are not available and no body makes bales with full length straw here.Therefore a moisture content of 75% at Fill Phase 2 may not be possible and 70 %to 72 % is fine.

Paddy Straw

The crop of paddy is harvested in the month of October and the paddy straw is available in plenty during October and November.The price is Rs 1.50 to Rs 2.50 per kg after chopping.The chopping can be done to any size.The moisture content is 10% to 15%.

Factors in Composting

Prewet As paddy straw do not posses a distinct wax coating like wheat straw,it absorb water as soon as it comes in contact with water.therefore the period of prewet is calculated by number of hours rather than number of days..The shining bright surface of fresh wheat straw is due to the wax layer, which makes the wheat plant disease resistant and help it to prevent excess loss of water. As soon as water comes in contact and stay, the bacteria come in action and dissolve it.

Level of fermentation Since the leaf to stem ratio is high in paddy straw, leafy material ferment faster than stem.This overfermented material makes the compost soggy and soft.This makes water management in the compost difficult.The formation of soft and buttery texture,if overfermented, is scary as such batches are not going to give optimum production.And how do we survive, if one has to pay the bank installment also, and average yield is less than 20%!

Structure of straw The outer layer is made of cellulose and hemicellulose, main source of Carbon. as the straw grow and turn from green to pale brown colour.This process can be compared to the building of a wall,where cellulose is the brick, hemicellulose is the cement sand mixture and lignin is reinforcement bar, making the straw hard.Leaves being soft have less of lignin.During the prewet and Phase 1,cellulose is decomposed and act as sponge and retain the water.Lignin is not touched and remain as such and is an excellent food for mushroom mycelium.

Chemical Composition of various kinds of Straw

From this chart,it is clear that lignin content is highest in the wheat straw. Lignin is responsible for maintaining its open texture during composting,so that air is easily passed through the heap of compost! Cellulose and hemicellulose wise, wheat straw score high.High silica in paddy straw only adds to high ash content which is of no use to mycelium.

Paddy straw is being used extensively and successfully where wheat straw is not available.The problem with paddy straw is its leafy soft material.Ideal condition would be to remove leafy material while chopping using a fan.Certain varieties of paddy are having less of leafy material and should be considered..Composting is shorter in duration.Water management should be tight which means that water should be increased gradually.It is easy to add water to a thirsty compost but not possible to extract excess of water out of it.Green straw should be avoided.Excess of goody water may not be used as it make the compost heavy! Adding Inorganic nitrogen like urea should be minimized as it would make the end products softer. It needs some experience as making paddy straw compost is relatively difficult compared to wheat straw compost. It may be filled in beds loose and is more suited to bed growing than bag growing.

Some farmers make compost by mixing wheat straw and paddy straw.Since the level of fermentation is different for the two materials, creating a uniform compost may not be possible.By the time wheat straw have softened enough, the paddy straw is over fermented making it sticky and soggy. Adding 10% of lengthy straw to short structure straw is a different game as we add it to give volume to the compost for better aeration, and not for the nutrition. 

Sugar cane bagasse

The bagasse available at most of the sugar mills is extremely  fine and is of no use.However bagasse from units making jaggery have a good texture.Raw bagasse cannot be used and must be cured till the sweat aroma is gone which may take over a month.Bagasse, being a tough material, composting period is relatively long.

Mustard straw

This is being used and again require a longer composting period.There is a lot of soil mixed in the material and interfere in composting.When straw is collected, the whole plant is uprooted from ground,and is collected by loader and soil with straw is inevitable.In the season it is available for Rs 2 per Kg at farm.For many years I did not try it thinking that unlike wheat, paddy, sugarcane and barley all belonging to grass family,mustard belong to legume family.But while working with this relatively tough material in a few commercial batches,I found it is promising.As the straw will be available in April next year,I hope to take few more batches to fine tune the procedure and compare the productivity..

Oat straw is too soft and corn stalks too hard!The straw of cotton and pulses is available in plenty and need exploration as ingredient of compost formulation.Can the yield match with wheat straw compost?Can it be cost effective ?Everybody should be questioning.

Conclusion

Wheat straw remains my favorite straw despite the high price.It is not so sensitive to water and to the number of days incomposting. By nature, it is more resilient and therefore easy to handle .After all, the profits in mushroom farming comes from the higher yield and not by cost cutting by compromising on the quality of raw materials. However a good composting person would understand the nature, age and quality of straw made available, adapt the water management,time duration of prewet and Phase 1, level of fermentation and formulations to make a productive compost.

Emerging First Flush of button mushroom

Seasonal Mushroom Growing

Setting up a mushroom farm is an expensive and complex affair. It involves building of insulated rooms with metal racks. For control of temperature, RH and fresh air, air handling units are installed in individual rooms connected with a central cooling unit comprising of compressors, condensers etc. A composting unit having Phase1 tunnels, Phase2 tunnels and a platfarm  is also a part of the complex.

In north India, we get a fairly extended winter and it is possible to take one extended crop or even two crops, from end of November to end of March without sophisticated climate control. Hundreds of farmers produce mushrooms in north India with Haryana on the top of the list.The compost is made by long method and growing is done in bamboo-paddy straw huts.

Besides working in a modern mushroom farm with climate control, I have been growing mushrooms seasonally for the last ten years,making compost and growing in temporary huts made of bamboos and paddy straw, like hundreds of other farmers around Delhi. However I shifted to short method of composting after building Phase1 and Phase 2 tunnels, three years back, .My average yield picked is 6 MT of fresh mushrooms per batch of 12 MT of wheat straw with long method and 9 MT  for the same batch with short method.Working with many mushroom growers in the region,I have some thoughts  regarding present and future of seasonal mushroom growing.

In the year of 1985 a small village emerged on the map of India, as the village of mushroom as most of the families of village Badana in Haryana were engaged in this profession. Where is this village today? There used to be the biggest mushroom farm producing  100 tons of button mushrooms per day in bamboo huts     in hills of   Indonesia,in nineties under the guidance of Prof. Vedder. Taiwan was a major exporter in eighties. Not any more..China, the biggest producer and exporter of mushrooms, the figures of mushroom production are dipping steadily in the last few years. In fact they are shifting from seasonal growing to modern mushroom farms with climate control. Do the production in huts,during seasonal mushroom growing decline after a peak.Is it a reality or myth?

Advantage of starting up a new mushroom farm in a new place is always there. As the farm  and the site gets older, spores  of green mould, yellow mould, plaster mould etc. accumulates in the air, soil even on the bamboos.They are ready to attack mercilessly  on a compost not made properly or “selective” in other words.The monster of “bubble”is always looming and mushroom flies do appear as soon as warm weather begins in the month of March.God forbid, if bubble attack at an early stage, it can spoil the game as the economics of seasonal growing is based on prolonged period of cropping.Good hygiene standards are not possible to maintain in temporary huts erected among paddy fields. Solution - Therefore shifting the growing site every season helps to an extent.

Most of the farmers talk of poor yields, citing various reasons. Many farmers are making compost with very old formulation using inorganic nitrogen fertilizers like potash, calcium ammonium nitrate, super phosphate etc. instead of chicken manure. Not only is this formula expensive, but this nitrogen is not utilized by microbes working in late composting, therefore not very much useful to the mushroom mycelium. Solution-With right formulation,when compost temperature touch a temp. of 75 to 80 degrree C in the core of compost pile plus high levels of ammonia, nematodes and insect eggs get killed and there is no need to add Furadon and BHC powder, both of these chemicals are banned in developed countries.

Technical advice is not available to the farmers. The scientists working in research institutes are doing their bit, but how is a farmer is expected to learn the vast field of mushroom growing by attending small courses organised by them. Since it is a seasonal activity, farmer gets only two to three months for composting and three months for growing, where one has to rush against the time. "Skill" is hard to acquire - whether it is the moisture in compost or picking speed or watering regime during cropping. Solution - Instead of giving subsidies to the farmers, they should be strengthened by providing them with technical knowledge to increase the production.This can be done by visiting them door to door at the time of composting as well as at time of mushroom growing.A mushroom training school in the line of CCO Holland should be established where mushroom growing is done in a full fledged  mushroom farm running  actively round the year and where participants are involved in all steps of composting, growing and packing,working by their own hands with experts.There are different batches for beginners and growers with experience.

Labour availability is becoming a  major problem, especially they do not want to work in composting owing to the bad smell. Again being a seasonal activity, skilled labour is not available who prefer to work in mushroom farms with climate control the whole year. The reality of changing time is that with NREGA  and other development schemes in backward states, migrant labor from Bihar and UP are not coming to work in mushroom farms in Punjab and Haryana in big numbers any more.The focus of agriculture labour is confined to rice transplantation, grain harvest or sugarcane harvest as these activities are more rewarding in terms of money. Instances of workers getting advance money and disappearing are not uncommon.

Market is manipulated by a  few  traders (arthees) sitting in the vegetable markets of Delhi, Ludhiana and other cities. Our marketing system is not conducive to farmers where the middle man's margins are high. Often, they lend the money to the farmers just before the season start. Now farmer is bound to sell his produce to the same guy, who never miss an opportunity to take advantage of the situation. The perishable nature of mushroom makes the things even more difficult.

Like other agriculture crops, there is no provision of insurance of mushroom crops against damage of huts due to excessive rains, high winds and fire.

Banks helping farmers seems to be a farce. Many banks tells that loan against land in rural area is not possible and ask for big FDs as security. SBI is charging an interest rate of 12.15% for a loan taken for building a composting unit and 15% on cc limit. This is in contrast to 10.45% on a loan to buy a luxury car, 10.5% on setting up a poultry farm and 10% on building a cold store.

Despite the odds, there are a handful of growers who are doing well. With experience they have learnt the art of making compost by long method, kept their costing under control and found  better market outlets in other towns besides Delhi.

Like in any other business, there are some good years and some bad years. This year, the prices were very good which is the result of demand supply game.and an extended period of marriages. Bamboos are one time investment as they last for five to seven years. Each year when September comes, these bamboos lures the farmer and he again plans one more time even if preceding year was not so profitable!

I wish there was a strong cooperative of seasonal mushroom growers which could help the farmers get a better price for the produce by direct sale in fresh markets all over the country and a tie up with processing units. By highlighting the nutritional and medicinal value of this super food we should be able to increase the per capita consumption. Developed countries did it twenty years ago and are still doing it, spreading the useful information on food value and different ways to cook it, in health magazines, TV shows, FM radio by involving famous chefs,  nutritionists and dietitians. The supermarkets are full of eye catching posters with innovative slogans, inspiring customers to buy more mushrooms. In our country, NECC cooperative of egg producers is an excellent example, helping in marketing by promoting the produce to fixing of prices.

The credit to make mushroom a popular veggie goes  to the seasonal mushroom growers, and not to any other agency. How mushrooms invaded into the kitchens of middle class man from just being a party food in recent years is amazing! In a rapidly developing country like ours, there is a tremendous scope with a huge market for home as well as exports, in waiting .Considering the above mentioned points, seasonal mushroom growing should be popularized further, thus strengthening our farmers. Let us usher in the period of unlimited opportunities for growth of this cottage industry with a bang!

Setting up a Mushroom Farm - Factors to look for

What factors to look for while setting up a mushroom farm - 

1. What kind of mushrooms should be grown? In market white button mushrooms come to mind when you talk of mushrooms. The oyster mushrooms too have a small niche. So, what is the point of talking of any other mushroom except white button mushroom.
2. Location - For growing button mushrooms, temperature requirement of 16 degrees to 25 degree C is there,therefore whole of north India is suitable. One or two winter crops can be taken without cooling. Climate control would be much cheaper than rest of the country.
3. Raw materials - Main raw material is straw of wheat ,found abundantly in upper part of India. Paddy straw can also be used but wheat straw is easy to use.Chicken manure from poultry farms is other ingredient to make mushroom compost.Ground water availability is another requirement.
4. Market - Connectivity with big cities by road or railways is essential. Besides going to mandies, direct sellig to big stores is another growing option. Having a contract with a big food processing unit (canning or frozen) for part production is also lucrative.
5. Electricity - Availability and tariff is another factor to be considered for a climate controlled mushroom farm with continuous production.
6. Labour - Availability of local or migrant labour.
7. Staff - Like any other business, personnal requirement should be considered. Hiring an experienced grower and a market strategy are important aspects.
8. Other factors - Many states are giving subsidies to set up agri-based projects. Cold stores can be converted into mushroom growing units.