The Punjab government will soon set up a Centre of Excellence for mushroom cultivation at Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) in Ludhiana.
The step is aimed at giving further impetus to the state government's programme of crop diversification, an official spokesperson said.
The centre will cater to the needs of mushroom growers and primarily focus on the issues related to quality supply of mushroom seeds, marketing support, processing and the new technologies to save their crops from the vagaries of weather, he added.
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As part of the drive for giving new push to crop diversification plan, the state government has given special focus to mushroom cultivation -- both Oyster and Button verities -- which resulted in the production of 5,044 metric tonnes in the state during the last year.
The growth in production was both in respect of Oyster and Button mushroom varieties.
Three villages of Ludhiana, one of Gurdaspur, two of Sangrur, two of Sri Mukatsar Sahib, one of Barnala and three of Pathankot were adopted for production of Oyster, the spokesperson said.
