Waste to wealth via milky white mushroom

Abstract

The present study was conducted in malnad and semi malnad regions of Karnataka to ascertain the economics and marketing of milky white mushroom production. A sample of five milky white mushroom production units were randomly selected following snow ball sampling. The net returns of Rs.89/kg and Benefit Cost Ratio of 2.25 indicated the profitability of milky white mushroom production. The assessment of marketing aspects revealed that Producer-Retailer located at distant place-Consumer was found to be the prominent marketing channel practiced by the mushroom growers though it is relatively inefficient compared to Producer-Local Retailer-Consumer. The producer’s share in consumer rupee was 75.08 percent in case of predominant marketing channel indicating the existence of price spread of 24.92 percent. Prospective mushroom growers should be encouraged by the government through provision of production related subsidies and creation of infrastructure for facilitating value addition.