Authors : Bhandari P. R., Wadhai V.S. and Kamdi R.R.
Page Nos : 181-184
Description :
Mushroom cultivation technology is friendly to the environment. The production of edible and
medicinal mushrooms utilising, for example, paddy straw, cotton wastes, water hyacinth, tree saw dust,
and various categories of refuse and lignocelluloses wastes
, could readily be adopted in Indian
communities in sophisticated, but low technology approaches. The spent substrate left after harvesting
the mushrooms, which is entangled with innumerable mushroom threads (collectively referred to as
mycelia) will have
been biochemically modified by the mushroom enzymes into a simpler and more readily
digestible form, which is thus more palatable to livestock, when used as a livestock feed supplement. It
has been revealed recently that mushroom mycelia can play a signifi
cant role in the restoration of
damaged environments. Saprotrophic, endophytic, mycorrhizal, and even parasitic fungi/mushrooms can
be used in mycorestoration, which can be performed in four different ways: mycofiltration (using mycelia
to filter water), m
ycoforestry (using mycelia to restore forests), mycoremediation (using mycelia to
eliminate toxic waste), and mycopesticides (using mycelia to control insect pests). These methods
represent the potential to create a clean ecosystem, where no damage will be
left after fungal
implementation.
