Button Mushroom (Agarics spp.) is the most popular mushroom variety grown and consumed the world over. In India, its production earlier was limited to the winter season, but with technology development is produced almost throughout the country round the year in small, medium and large farms, adopting different levels of technology. Mushroom is one of the most important horticultural cash crops grown world over, and is least land dependent. A piece of land is required for building of infrastructure. The cultivation is done entirely indoors on substrates prepared from agricultural waste materials specially for the purpose of mushroom growing. Mushroom is a highly profitable cash crop in India, especially when raw materials and labour are available at cheap rates. Mushroom cultivation, which is of recent origin in India, has become popular all over the country especially with advancement in development of environment control systems. White button mushroom cultivation (Agarics Bosporus) was initiated at Solan, Himachal Pradesh in early sixties successfully. Since then mushroom cultivation has been taken up by private and government agencies all over the country. In hilly regions white button mushroom is commonly grown as a seasonal crop because of its low temperature requirement for cropping (15-18C), while as Oyster / Dhingra and paddy straw mushrooms are successfully grown in hot and humid regions, like coastal areas /peninsular India, under natural seasonal growing conditions. It is now possible to grow white button mushroom at any elevation/place with creation of necessary environment. Specially designed insulated cropping rooms are built to cut off the external environment with that of inside environment. The environment / climate inside the cropping rooms is simulated to exact conditions required for mushroom growth. This has enabled growers to harvest excellent crops.
Mushroom forms an excellent protein rich diet for human consumption. Mushroom is valued for its aroma, food value, mineral and vitamin content and fibre value. Mushrooms are one of the richest in protein content amongst the vegetables (3.5 - 4 percent protein content on fresh weight basis), and are valued for the highest content of folic acid required for healthy blood development in human beings. Mushrooms have a high content of fibre and potassium which are useful for lowering blood cholesterol level and control of high blood pressure respectively. Mushrooms above all, are excellent addition to the menu of vegetarians and are now being cultivated at hills and in tropical areas of India under controlled environment successfully. Mushroom cultivation is especially high on the priority list for export which can earn valuable foreign exchange for the country. It is more profitable and economic to grow mushrooms in areas with abundant raw materials and cheap labour, as it is no more economical to grow mushrooms in highly industrialized countries because of high cost of raw materials and Labour.
The entire infrastructure will be built at one place, and the site selected is nearer to the main road necessary for operational convenience. The composting unit is to be built closer to the main road and the bulk chambers will be built on the distant end of the composting yard for reasons of hygiene. The growing rooms should be built on the spawning end of the bulk chamber and away from the composting yard. The spawn production laboratory will be built in the ground floors. In this report details of the following will be given with structural design: of mushrooms, irrespective of external environmental conditions prevailing.
i) Composting yard consisting of phase-I chambers, bulk chamber / pasteurization chambers, composting platform and casing pasteurization chambers,
ii) Four environments controlled cropping rooms for raising of crop.
iii) Canning unit
iv) Spawn Laboratory
v) Training centre for “Mushroom Production Technology”

Button Mushroom (Agarics spp.) is the most popular mushroom variety grown and consumed the world over. In India, its production earlier was limited to the winter season, but with technology development is produced almost throughout the country round the year in small, medium and large farms, adopting different levels of technology. Mushroom is one of the most important horticultural cash crops grown world over, and is least land dependent. A piece of land is required for building of infrastructure. The cultivation is done entirely indoors on substrates prepared from agricultural waste materials specially for the purpose of mushroom growing. Mushroom is a highly profitable cash crop in India, especially when raw materials and labour are available at cheap rates. Mushroom cultivation, which is of recent origin in India, has become popular all over the country especially with advancement in development of environment control systems. White button mushroom cultivation (Agarics Bosporus) was initiated at Solan, Himachal Pradesh in early sixties successfully. Since then mushroom cultivation has been taken up by private and government agencies all over the country. In hilly regions white button mushroom is commonly grown as a seasonal crop because of its low temperature requirement for cropping (15-18C), while as Oyster / Dhingra and paddy straw mushrooms are successfully grown in hot and humid regions, like coastal areas /peninsular India, under natural seasonal growing conditions. It is now possible to grow white button mushroom at any elevation/place with creation of necessary environment. Specially designed insulated cropping rooms are built to cut off the external environment with that of inside environment. The environment / climate inside the cropping rooms is simulated to exact conditions required for mushroom growth. This has enabled growers to harvest excellent crops.
Mushroom forms an excellent protein rich diet for human consumption. Mushroom is valued for its aroma, food value, mineral and vitamin content and fibre value. Mushrooms are one of the richest in protein content amongst the vegetables (3.5 - 4 percent protein content on fresh weight basis), and are valued for the highest content of folic acid required for healthy blood development in human beings. Mushrooms have a high content of fibre and potassium which are useful for lowering blood cholesterol level and control of high blood pressure respectively. Mushrooms above all, are excellent addition to the menu of vegetarians and are now being cultivated at hills and in tropical areas of India under controlled environment successfully. Mushroom cultivation is especially high on the priority list for export which can earn valuable foreign exchange for the country. It is more profitable and economic to grow mushrooms in areas with abundant raw materials and cheap labour, as it is no more economical to grow mushrooms in highly industrialized countries because of high cost of raw materials and Labour.
The entire infrastructure will be built at one place, and the site selected is nearer to the main road necessary for operational convenience. The composting unit is to be built closer to the main road and the bulk chambers will be built on the distant end of the composting yard for reasons of hygiene. The growing rooms should be built on the spawning end of the bulk chamber and away from the composting yard. The spawn production laboratory will be built in the ground floors. In this report details of the following will be given with structural design: of mushrooms, irrespective of external environmental conditions prevailing.
i) Composting yard consisting of phase-I chambers, bulk chamber / pasteurization chambers, composting platform and casing pasteurization chambers,
ii) Four environments controlled cropping rooms for raising of crop.
iii) Canning unit
iv) Spawn Laboratory
v) Training centre for “Mushroom Production Technology”