Mushroom cultivation in India is hardly about fifty years old. The mushroom growing centres are mainly in the north and some regions of the south along with Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as important mushroom growing states. Recently the eastern states have taken much interest in mushroom cultivation. The technology of mushroom  culture got a boost-up when a project on mushroom cultivation was started in Himachal Pradesh followed by the establishment of the National Centre for Mushroom Research and Training and functions in some State Agricultural universities, KVKs and private sector.

The author has prompted to write to this book “Mushroom Culture” for the students of the SAUs as per their prescribed syllabus and also to satisfy the requirements of interested growers from practical and viable angle. Still mushroom culture remains as the illusive enterprise for the entrepreneurs. The book has been written in 9 (nine) chapters detailing with importance of mushrooms, bottlenecks for the industry, its cultivation and development in India, extension and training for entrepreneurship, grading and preservation, economics of Paddy-Straw, Oyster and Button mushrooms, processing, Insect-Pest and disease control, medicinal value, uses, recipes of mushrooms, mushroom poisoning, toxins and their symptoms, etc.