9th Mile (Guwahati) , January 20 : The Department of Rural Development, University of
Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM) has hosted a three-day training programme on low-cost mushroom cultivation for the villagers of All Kling Dorbar, Ri-Bhoi District, Meghalaya. The training programme began from yesterday.
On this occasion, Prof. GD Sharma, Vice-Chancellor of USTM said that mushroom cultivation training is an important step towards establishing a socio-economic relationship between the villagers and USTM.
He emphasized on the creation of employment from locally available resources which are at the same time environment friendly. He also said that after getting training from the department, the villagers can start their own business of mushroom cultivation,
which is much more beneficial since it requires very little land and the landless farmers in the
rural areas can cultivate it easily.
Prof. Sharma also talked about the harvesting techniques and how to save the mushrooms from fungal infection. Mushroom cultivation is very profitable and the farmers will get more profit out of it, farmers of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are already making a profit from mushroom cultivation, he added.
Earlier, the head of the department, Dr Papiya Dutta said that the programme is an initiative by the Department of Rural Development to make the villagers economically independent and to empower the women of the villages so that they may become financially solvent.
Ms Gayatri Saikia, Saikat Majumdar and Dr. Sanjib Dutta overviewed the mushroom demonstration and hands-on practice for the villagers.
