In a bid to upgrade the mushroom growers across state with latest technology, Punjab government today gave nod to set up a Centre of excellence for cultivation of the crop.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during meeting with experts approved establishment of a Centre of excellence for the mushroom cultivation at Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana.
The meeting was attended senior officers of the agriculture department, experts from PAU and progressive mushroom growers of the state here at Chief Minister's Office this morning.
This step was aimed at giving further impetus to the state government's ambitious programme of agriculture diversification, an official release said.
Badal has also the Vice Chancellor of PAU to immediately submit the detailed project report in this regard so that the proposed centre of excellence could be set up at the earliest, it said.
He hoped the centre would cater to the needs of mushroom growers and primarily focus on the issues related to quality supply of mushroom seeds, marketing support, processing and the new technologies to save their crops from the vagaries of weather.
Conceding another demand of the mushroom growers, Badal decided to levy power tariff from the mushroom growers on par with agriculture sector and assured them of special power supply line for getting uninterrupted electricity.
To make mushroom growers conversant with the emerging technologies in this field, the Chief Minister asked the Additional Chief Secretary (Development) to send a delegation of local mushroom growers to China, the only country in the world which cateres to almost 80 per cent of total mushroom production at global level.
Addressing the issue of scarce supply of mushroom seeds, the Chief Minister asked the PAU to tie up with the Krishi Vigyan Kendras in the state to ensure the high quality seeds to the mushroom growers.
