The course which basically comprised lectures and demonstrations started with a talk by the tall, thin, long-haired Nandakumar Kamat. His first question was: "What do you want to cultivate mushrooms for? Kitchen gardening, small scale production or large scale export?" Depending on your objectives you can decide on the variety and the quantity, he told us. His talk included slides of different varieties of mushrooms, poisonous and non poisonous.
The talk was lengthy but very interesting. It ended well past lunch time and most of the participants including myself were happy to go straight to a meal at the FTC canteen where a delicious fish curry thali could be purchased for just Rs.6.
The second session began at three in the afternoon. There were two talks in this session, the first by a scientist from the ICAR who spoke on pests and diseases that attack mushrooms. Among the problem areas he mentioned insects, fungi, bacteria and improper management.
Unfortunately most of the remedies he suggested were limited to spraying of insecticides and pesticides such as lindane, malathion dichlorose, copper sulphate or citronella oil. To be fair, he also laid stress on proper management and hygiene as an effective way to reduce diseases. Since none of us had ever grown mushrooms before there were not many questions or doubts raised at the end of his lecture.
Then there was a talk by a woman who explained to us the nutritional value of mushrooms. For half an hour she spoke on the low fat and sugar content of mushrooms and how mushrooms prevent pain in joints of bones, tooth decay and bleeding gums. It made me feel that I should make mushrooms my staple diet!
The programme for the day ended at 6 p.m. That's when I was surprised to discover that everyone was going home and I was the only residential participant. I decided to stay the night anyway since the organisers told me that adequate arrangements had been made for anyone wishing to do so.
I spent the evening and early in the morning the next day looking around the campus. I noticed that the ICAR had a small nursery, a flower garden, a small fish pond, pens for small animals such as rabbits and chickens, cattle sheds and vast paddy fields. There was also an orchard with a variety of fruit trees such as mango, chickoo, coconut palms etc.
In the midst of all this greenery were the residential buildings with the canteen in between. I occupied one of the rooms on the first floor of the four-storey building. It was a small room, with two beds, a few lockers, a table and a mirror. Since there was no one else staying the night, the watchman was asked to stay with me for company. The canteen served good and cheap meals. I had already eaten there in the afternoon with the others. For the night the cook prepared some fish curry rice for me. The next morning I had a breakfast of bread and vegetables for three rupees only. That night, not having much to do, the watchman and I decided to walk up the hill at the back of the campus, at the top of which was a temple.
Most of the second day was conducted by Oscar. Oscar's presentation was more of a practical exercise. He gave very practical information on how to grow mushrooms and interspersed his talk with slides and live demonstrations. He showed us the inoculation and culture room for tissue culture as well as the ultraviolet tube where the mother spawn is prepared. Rushing up and down the lab and the lecture hall we were shown how straw is boiled, how the mushroom bags are filled, and so on. We were allowed to actively participate and fill in the bags ourselves. All the participants enjoyed Oscar's session and wished it could have been longer.
None of the participants had any experience with growing mushrooms for commercial purposes so Oscar had invited two people who grew mushrooms for the local market as well as for export purposes to address us. They had been growing mushrooms for the past one year, selling them fresh or dried according to the demand and they gave us very practical information based on their personal experience. They said that they filled two hundred bags of straw everyday. They told us of the problems they faced with pests (mainly rats) and diseases and also the difficulties they initially faced when selling mushrooms. The programme finally concluded with a speech by the Director of the Farmers' Training Centre who told us about the general activities of the FTC and the ICAR.