Diseases and Management of Crops under Protected Cultivation

(Diseases and Management of Crops under Protected Cultivation)
physician Dioscorides of Ist centaury included lurch polypore (Fomitopsisofficinalis(Villars: Fr.)
Bond and Singer, Polyporaceae in his De Materiamedica known then as Agaricum and later as
the Quinine conk. It was used for the treatment of tuberculosis. Though mushroom have been
used in China for medicinal purposes since 100 AD (Gunde, 1999). Most of the mushroom
drugs are now available in tablet form in China (Yang et al., 1993).The modern thinking about
the medicinal properties came late in 1960 to investigate basic health promoting active
principles. Specific biochemical compounds of mushrooms are responsible for improving
human health in many ways. These bioactive compounds include polysaccharides, triterpanoides,
low molecular weight proteins, glycoproteins and immunomodulating compounds.
These chemicals have been shown to boost immune system against several antigens, lower
down the risk of cancer, reduce inflammation, induce the antioxidant mechanism of our system
and to regulate digestive system.The medicines of mushroom origin can also control various
diseases. According to Bahl (1983) mushrooms can cure epilepsy, wounds, skin diseases,
heart ailments, rheumatoid arthritis, cholera besides intermittent fevers, diaphoretic, diarrhea,
dysentery, cold, anesthesia, liver disease, gall bladder diseases and used as vermicides.The
mushroom medicine also act asanti-allergic andanticholesterolemic (Jiskani, 2001).
C. MST in Agriculture:Innately MST not supports only to organic farming and its sustainability but
also supports to other agro-business like poultry production, animal husbandry, agriculture and
some industries of chemicals, fertilizers and organic by-products (wheat bran, sawdust
etc.).Year round seasonal cultivation of mushroom is possible by growing different mushrooms
in different months. By this way growers can generate full time employment to themselves and
their family members. Mushroom cultivation does not require any fertile land of cultivation so
landless farmers can grow mushroom in their small rooms. The collective farming of mushroom
is more beneficial than single cultivating unit in order toupliftment of livelihoodof poor people as
they can get good marketing solutions and ultimately employment generationwith mutual.
D. MST in Ecology: MST purelybelieveson conservation of natural resources by two different
ways: (1) mushroom mycelium transforms hardy degradable rather polluting organic
substances into valuable foodstuffs e.g. mushroom fruits and mushroom mycelium (Beyer,
2005, Noble, 2005), (2) use of fungi/mushroom mycelia as tool for healing soil, what Stamets
(2005) termed “mycorestoration”in which‘fungi/mushroom repairs or restores damaged
biosystems’. Mycorestorationincludes the selective use of mushrooms, to filter
water(mycofiltration), to enact ecoforestrypolicy (mycoforestry), to denature toxic
wastes(mycoremediation)and to control insect pests and diseases (mycopesticides). Thus,
MSTdirectly pacts withclean and balance environment.
E. MST in Bazaar: As per FAO statistics global mushroom production was estimated at about
2.18 to 3.41 million tons over period of last 10 years (1997-2007). This is incessantly increasing
with the rate of 0.3-3.41 million tons over the period of about last 50 years from 1961-2010. Out
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