Being good source of protein, vitamins, minerals, and essential amino acid, mushrooms are cherished the world over as the choicest food. In Pakistan also, the consumption of this nutritious commodity is gaining momentum in various food preparation. Simultaneously interest of its cultivation among the potential growers and un-employed youth is on the rise due to its high commercial prospects and low input cost.

The nutrition section of  Food Science Division in collaboration with Pakistan Science Foundation has initiated a vibrant Mushroom project. In this connection a model cottage farm has been established in the premises of  institute. The facility is being used both for R & D activities on mushroom cultivation and as venue for providing hands-on training to potential growers.

In the R & D related area work has been conducted on standardization of various agricultural substrates and mushroom spawns for getting maximum yield of the commodity with optimum nutritional attributes. The various agricultural wastes which are being used as substrates include wheat straw, cotton waste, paddy waste, barley straw, gram straw, saw dust and logs of different woods. Various spawn of oyster, button and shitakae are being tried on different composition of substrates for getting higher yield and good notional quality fruit bodies. Work on shelf life extension of the commodity using various doses of gamma radiation, solar draying and packaging is also in progress. Through various training and courses on mushrooms 45 growers have been trained entailing in opening of 17 mushroom cottages in the province. A series of further more workshops have been planned for interested growers with the aim to groom the mushroom cultivation as cottages industry in the province. The mushroom group of NIFA also prepares spawn of  various mushroom species on small scales distribution among the farmers.

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