Papers by mahantesh shirur
In pursuance of the obligations under Indian constitution and International conventions, providin... more In pursuance of the obligations under Indian constitution and International conventions, providing food security to all citizens has been the focus of the Government's planning and policy. National Food Security Act (NFS Act) is the latest initiative of Indian Government to achieve the food security through right based legislation. The ambitious programme of the Government, offers several opportunities like right based approach to give food to all its subjects, life based approach, women empowerment reforms in public distribution, revitalisation of agriculture etc. However, the Act throws many challenges like the huge financial implications like domestic subsidy on food, transparency in procurement and distribution of food, mitigating corruption, reaching the intended beneficiaries, impact of the Act on inflation and other macroeconomic indicators etc and hence raises many questions over its successful implementation in India.
Melas (Field days) and kisan goshthis (Farmer-expert interactions) have been key activities of ag... more Melas (Field days) and kisan goshthis (Farmer-expert interactions) have been key activities of agriculture research institutes to spread awareness about the technologies among clients and to address their problems.The Directorate of Mushroom Research initiated the concept of regional mushroom mela and kisan goshthis during 2010. Unlike the national mushroom mela, the regional mushroom melas were organised among the cluster of mushroom growers in Haryana, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir with three key objectives of spreading the advanced technology among the rural farmers, addressing the problems encountered by mushroom growers in cultivation by expert advises and promoting mushroom consumption among masses. Five such melas were organised during 2010-11 with prior planning, preparation and publicity. About 200-350 mushroom growers other farmers, entrepreneurs, several officials, scientists and technical staff from different government organisations, financial institutions, krishi vigyan k...
Considering the vast scope for mushroom cultivation, many farmers and entrepreneurs are taking up... more Considering the vast scope for mushroom cultivation, many farmers and entrepreneurs are taking up mushroom cultivation in India. Agaricus bisporus though is the prominent edible mushroom in the country, other tropical mushrooms like Pleurotus sp, Calocybe sp. and Volvariella sp. are getting importance owing to the suitability of agro-climatic conditions. Many farmers succeed in successful cultivation of these mushrooms, while they are unsuccessful in marketing of the same. Several farmers even fail to succeed in mushroom cultivation because of lack of proper understanding about mushroom cultivation and the underlying principles. Hence, the constraints reported in mushroom entrepreneurship were analysed and a successful mushroom entrepreneur was identified among the mushroom growing entrepreneurs from Karnataka State in India. The case study and SWOT analysis was done to draw the inferences and lessons for new entrepreneurs to succeed in mushroom cultivation in India and in other tro...
The preference of a particular strain to a specific substrate in shiitake mushroom was investigat... more The preference of a particular strain to a specific substrate in shiitake mushroom was investigated. The effect of different genotypes (DMRO-34, DMRO-23, DMRO-327 and DMRO-388s), substrates (sawdust and wheat straw) and their interactions were found highly significant for yield and yield attributing factors. Strain DMRO-388s recorded the highest bio-efficiency (85.63%) on saw dust (SD) and the strain DMRO-327 with 53.02% on wheat straw (WS). The mycelial colonization was rapid on SD, while the sporophore formation was found earlier on WS. Breakdown of phenolic compounds in the substrate was found much higher in WS particularly with strain DMRO-327. Ability of the strains to degrade lignin content was found higher by the strain DMRO-388s (58.78%) in SD. Hemicellulose concentration decreased in both the substrates with each passing growth stage and it was found much rapid with DMRO-388s after spawn run stage. Of the substrates used, SD gave higher yield over the WS. But the earliness ...
Bangladesh Journal of Botany
The present experiment was conducted in order to prepare a suitable substrate composition using w... more The present experiment was conducted in order to prepare a suitable substrate composition using wheat straw and also to ascertain the effect of various levels of nitrogen supplementation on the yield and biological efficiency of Pleurotus mushroom. The strain DMRP-205 of Pleurotus djamor was used in the study. Among different treatment combinations, maximum biological efficiency of 75.11% was recorded in T2 with 0.5% of urea supplementation. It was also observed that, though the higher nitrogen supplementation does not increase the yield proportionately, it has significant effect on the spawn run period, cropping duration and colour intensity of the basidiocarp. The study necessitates the nitrogen supplementation at optimum levels (0.5%) to realize the maximum yield in P. djamor cultivation. Bangladesh J. Bot. 50(2): 227-233, 2021 (June)
Indian Journal of Extension Education
Microbial Biotechnology in Environmental Monitoring and Cleanup, 2018
The environment is a life support system and it significantly influences the living organisms and... more The environment is a life support system and it significantly influences the living organisms and their genes. Decomposers and microorganisms play a major role in maintaining the sustainability of the environment by converting toxic products into a mineralized form and maintaining the nutrient cycle. It is estimated that 62% of the 22 million tons of surplus rice straw is burnt in the field every year and contributes significantly to the black carbon emission from biomass burning. This alarming situation calls for a sustainable approach in crop residue management. Mushroom cultivation offers one such approach. Mushroom farms can act as disposal sites of agriculture residue and at the same time produce quality protein to meet the increasing protein demand. The macro fungi can play a major role in synthesis of non-toxic metal nano-particles from their salts and degradation of diverse crop residues through various enzymes present in them such as ligninases, cellulases, and laccases. Their role also extends to degrading the pesticides and persisting chemicals. This chapter explains the recent advances in mushrooms for effective crop residue utilization.
Indian Journal Of Agricultural Research
Mushroom cultivation is often promoted as profitable and income generating agri-business activity... more Mushroom cultivation is often promoted as profitable and income generating agri-business activity, while there is a very high rate of attrition in mushroom entrepreneurship. Performance of mushroom enterprise as a physical attribute and the entrepreneurial behaviour of mushroom growing farmers as a psychological attribute plays an important role in the success of the mushroom entrepreneurship. Both these variables are in turn influenced by several dimensions rendering it difficult to comprehend the nature of variability observed in them. Therefore, the principal component analysis (PCA) of these two variables was done for variable reduction and to understand their influence on mushroom entrepreneurship. The results of PCA ascertain the relative importance of different dimensions on the variables through Eigen weightages. Based on the findings, suitable strategies and necessary policy interventions are identified to make the mushroom entrepreneurship as a potential agri-business to a...
Current Science
Sheet breaker peptides inhibit fibrillogenesis in a rat brain model of amyloidosis: implications ... more Sheet breaker peptides inhibit fibrillogenesis in a rat brain model of amyloidosis: implications for Alzheimer's therapy. Nature Med., 1998, 4, 822-826. 23. Kuipers, B. J. H. and Gruppen, H., Prediction of molar extinction coefficients of proteins and peptides using UV absorption of the constituent amino acids at 214 nm to enable quantitative reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis.
Mushrooms are known world over for their nutritional and medicinal importance. Even as the mushro... more Mushrooms are known world over for their nutritional and medicinal importance. Even as the mushroom production and consumption are on the rise in rest of the world, India witnesses a lukewarm response in its growth. The mushroom consumer behaviour though is scarcely studied in India, is of considerable value to mushroom producers and people involved in mushroom marketing and processing. , the present study was envisaged to develop a scale to assess the mushroom consumption behaviour covering five major dimensions influencing the mushroom consumption by following psychometric technique using normalised rank approach. Based on the study, the Mushroom Consumer Behaviour Index (MCBI) was developed for application in mushroom consumer behaviour research. Among the five dimensions of the scale, the Situational dimension assumed highest scale value (5.93) followed by Dietary preferences (4.98), Economic dimension (4.62), Psychological dimension (4.25) and lastly the Social dimension assumi...
Among the different treatments fresh mushroom chips prepared by soaking in one per cent salt+ one... more Among the different treatments fresh mushroom chips prepared by soaking in one per cent salt+ one per cent KMS+0.5 per cent citric acid for five minutes along with partial dehydration for two minutes recorded higher per cent recovery, lower oil uptake, higher scores for organoleptic characters like colour and appearance, flavour, crispness, taste and overall acceptability. Among the different treatments 15 per cent mushroom powder fortified with noodle flour recorded the highest scores for organoleptic parameters like colour and appearance, flavour, crispness, taste and overall acceptability. Fortification of 20 percent mushroom powder to the noodle flour was found better for mushroom fortified noodles.
A study was conducted to develop the mushroom fortified biscuits as influenced by fortification o... more A study was conducted to develop the mushroom fortified biscuits as influenced by fortification of different levels of mushroom powder and artificial flavours. Mushroom fortified biscuits were prepared by adding mushroom powder to the biscuit recipe at 5, 10 and 15 per cent concentrations along with addition of strawberry and vanilla flavours at each level, whereas biscuits prepared only with bakery recipe were kept as control. Among different treatments, 10 per cent mushroom powder along with 0.2 per cent vanilla flavour recorded highest scores for organoleptic parameters like colour and appearance, flavour, crispness, taste and overall acceptability even upto 30 days of storage. Whereas, it was at par with fortification of 10 per cent mushroom powder along with 0.2 per cent strawberry flavour. Fortification with 10 per cent mushroom powder along with 0.2 per cent vanilla or strawberry flavour in bakery recipe was better for preparation of mushroom fortified biscuits.
The ever increasing population particularly in third world countries is creating problems of food... more The ever increasing population particularly in third world countries is creating problems of food, nutritional security, health and environment. Increase in crop production is resulting in generation of huge amount of agricultural waste creating environmental pollution. These wastes can be used in mushroom production there by producing valuable food with better nutritional and medicinal values, employment generation and spent mushroom can be used to produce organic manure for agricultural and horticultural crops. Varied agro-climatic conditions and availability of agricultural and industrial wastes in India (>700 million tonnes) offer great opportunities for cultivation of different mushrooms on commercial scale. Introduction of new mushrooms is important to meet out the increasing public appetite for new and different mushrooms. In this context milky mushroom (Calocybe indica) has great scope in our country. Moreover, Indian population being vegetarian, consumption of mushrooms would certainly augment their diet which is deficient in proteins and minerals. Mushroom consumption can thus prove a boon to growing children as well as breast feeding mothers. Mushroom consumption has proved beneficial for the patients suffering from hypertension, high sugar and heart problems. Among the new mushrooms, milky mushroom is an important mushroom and is gaining popularity recently. It is fourth most largely growing mushroom in India and being tropical in nature, the mushroom is grown commercially in many parts of the country particularly in southern parts of India. This mushroom is most popular in Tamil Nadu.
International Journal of Vegetable Science
ABSTRACT Shiitake [Lentinula edodes (Berk) Pegler] mushroom (SM) has evolved into an important sp... more ABSTRACT Shiitake [Lentinula edodes (Berk) Pegler] mushroom (SM) has evolved into an important specialty food owing to its high nutritional content and medicinal properties. Progress on genetic improvement is limited due to a narrow genetic base. Genetic divergence and variability in 19 strains of SM were analyzed. Cultivation trials were conducted under environmentally controlled conditions suitable for growing L. edodes on synthetic logs. Mahalanobis distance (D2) and cluster analysis using Tocher’s method was used to ascertain genetic diversity. Heritability, genetic advance and components of variances were determined through variability studies. Genotypes were clustered into three major groups based on yield and yield attributing traits. The strains took an average period of 85 days from incubation to first fruiting; DMRO-388s had the shortest duration of 50 days. Days from incubation to first fruiting exhibited high heritability (97.76%) with fair genetic advance (22.83) having substantial practical utility for selection in L. edodes. Cluster analysis for shiitake improvement predicted the most promising crosses would be between DMRO-23×DMRO-388s, DMRO-34×DMRO-623, and DMRO-35×DMRO-388s. The DMRO-388s and DMRO-327 strains can be successfully cultivated on wheat straw based substrate due its quick colonization abilities. The pre-incubation period using a sawdust based cultivation system appears to shorten the cropping cycle of L. edodes which has economic implications.
Field surveys were conducted to study the edaphic conditions at the natural sites of Morchella an... more Field surveys were conducted to study the edaphic conditions at the natural sites of Morchella and Phellorinia sp in parts of Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan during 2010. Few clusters of Morchella were found from the field boundaries of maize in the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh during July. It was found under the microclimatic conditions of pear tree (Pyrus sp) in association with moist, fertile, clay loam soil. Phellorinia were collected from the sandy tract of Rajasthan during September. Phellorinia mushroom requires coarse, well-aerated sandy soil with poor nutrients. Both mushrooms requires specific but opposite edaphic conditions.
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Papers by mahantesh shirur