Assessment of Scope and Efficiency of Off-Season Rice Straw Mushroom (Volvariella volvacea L.) Cultivation in Coastal Odisha

A field experiment was conducted in the farmers’ field in Ratanpur, Marshaghai block of Kendrapara district in Odisha, an adopted village of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kendrapara under the National Innovations in Climate-Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project with the objective of determining the productivity of rice straw mushroom in off-season (Month of November) under different cultivation systems. Keeping in view the need to develop more resilient technology for farmers to combat the current scenario of changing climate and market demands along with generation of additional income, the possibility of growing this tropical mushroom during winter month was tested. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with 4 number of treatments and 6 replications with ten beds (blocks) taken in each replication. The treatments undertaken were as follows, T1- Rice straw mushroom cultivation in shade net, T2- Rice straw mushroom cultivation in poly house, T3- Rice straw mushroom cultivation in thatched roof and T4- Outdoor Rice straw mushroom cultivation. It was concluded from the findings that poly house system outperformed the other three cultivation systems i.e. shade net, thatched house and open situations in terms of yield maximization, gross and net return during the off-season (November). The poly house system produced 10.8 - 76.4% higher yield in comparison to other three systems with increased net returns and B:C ratio of 1.78 suggesting it to be the best cultivation system for off-season production of rice straw mushroom.