Friday, July 22, 2011

Paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) can grow on rice straw, cotton waste, water hyacinth, bagasse, palm oil waste, banana leaves and reeds. Habits of farmers, especially in Indonesia are burning straw after harvest and spread on fields. This will only damage the fertility of the soil. This action is not understood by the farmers because of the limitations of their knowledge. Besides the burning of rice straw also causes air pollution.

Food shortages in some of the other hemisphere, it should be filled with paddy straw mushroom cultivation. Because the cultivation of paddy straw mushroom using raw materials that are easy to obtain. Moreover, the average of countries with food shortages have hot air temperatures that are suitable for paddy straw mushroom growth (32-38°C).

Mushroom cultivation can be developed diverse industries such as seed industry, providers of raw materials, processing up to the retail industry.

The main obstacle in developing countries like Indonesia is the lack of government attention to the cultivation of mushrooms compared to other types of farming such as rice, corn or other vegetable crops. Mushroom cultivators of knowledge are generally based on hereditary. Even some farmers do not know the function of lime during composting.