Small-scale Mushroom Production Unit for the Upliftment of Rural Economy and Women Empowerment in India: A Review

India is popularly known as an agriculture driven nation, since the majority of its population is employed in agriculture, thus, making agriculture backbone of the Indian economy. Agriculture is an engine of growth and poverty reduction in the majority of developing nations. Strengthening rural people, directly and indirectly, contributes to nations’ development. As in India, the rural population mostly comprises of marginal and landless farmers, there is a need for a low cost and maximum profit plan to enhance both their income as well as socio-economic status. One such plan is to set up a small-scale mushroom production unit which requires by-products of the agricultural farm as input and occupy less agricultural land space. Mushroom cultivation is a minimum input maximum output venture proving to be an additional source of income. The vegetarian population residing in the urban areas of our country has now accepted mushrooms in their diet because of its nutritional values so the mushroom produced from the nearby rural areas has a good market of selling their products easily and at a good price. Thus, the mushroom is a boon to both producer and consumer giving it the status of superfood. Mushroom cultivation can also be a way to empower the rural women, provide additional income for the sustenance of farming families and tackle the problem of lack of nutritional requirement of the rural people. Rural women are the most productive workforce in the economy, raising the need to strengthen and improve their socio-economic status. A low-cost small-scale mushroom production unit can generate income through the sale of spawns, in addition to the sale of fresh mushroom in a sustainable approach by utilizing farm by-products as their raw material.