Divya Sharma , Virender  Kumar , Ashok  Kumar

Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension Education Rural sociology CSKHPKV, Palampur- 176 062, India
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2018, Vol. 8, No. 11   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2018.08.0011
Received: 02 Mar., 2018    Accepted: 08 Mar., 2018    Published: 20 Apr., 2018

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Sharma D., Kumar V., and Kumar A., 2018, Economic viability of oyster mushroom (dhingri) in Himachal Pradesh, India, International Journal of Horticulture, 8(11): 119-123 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2018.08.0011)

Mushroom is a unique horticultural crop. Historically, mushrooms were gathered from the wild for consumption and for medicinal use. The first commercial cultivation of edible mushrooms was developed in France in the 18th century since then it was traveled far ahead. The oyster mushroom (Pleurotus spp) is a popular mushroom due to its tremendous stability of cap and stem, cooking qualities and longer shelf life. Mushrooms are considered to be the highest producer of protein per unit area and time. The present study is based on primary data which highlight the method of preparation of oyster mushroom and its economic viability in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. The overall fixed and variable cost of production / 100 bags for oyster mushroom were 69.98 and 30.02 per cent respectively. The overall gross returns per 100 bags basis were Rs. 16,800 and benefit-cost ratio was 1.83:1. Break-even output for oyster mushroom was 139 kg and break-even point was at 66. Thus, farmers should keep at least 66 bags of oyster mushroom to meet the cost of production.

Break-even point; Benefit-cost ratio