Extent of Dependency of Mushroom Grower on Multi-Agencies Efforts for Enterprise Promotion

During last few years Mushroom enterprise is emerging as a major off farm livelihood option for farm families of Odisha. For promotion of mushroom as an enterprise, in the state of odisha, a number of agencies, research organizations, development departments and private entities have been identified to play crucial role. In the present investigation the level of dependency and usefulness of different organizations and agencies in promotion of mushroom enterprise was studied with a sample size of 300 mushroom growers. This study revealed that, in supply of inputs, farmer promoters secured rank-I followed by private spawn producers and middle men. In supply of technology, the respondents have given maximum value to Horticulture department followed by farmer promoters, KVKs and CTMRT. The dependency of respondents in supply of finances was found to be maximum with co-operative Society followed by Gramin Bank and Nationalized Bank. In overall usefulness the study revealed that farmer promoters had put extra efforts in promotion of the enterprise focusing both on spread and intensity.