Journal of Krishi Vigyan

Mushroom production is simple, low cost and plays a significant role to alleviate poverty and generate employment opportunity for educated unemployed youth in rural and semi-urban areas. The present study was undertaken with the objective to assess the impact of training on knowledge gain about mushroom production as an enterprise/self-employment. The training program on mushroom production was focused on farmers, farm women and youths who have interested in self-employment. Detailed training on different parameters of mushroom production in context to cultivation techniques, preparation of spawn, substrates preparation, marketing of fresh product, preservation and value addition etc was imparted to a total number of 72 participants (men 29; women 43) in five courses. The impact of the training was assessed by pre and post evaluation testing in terms of improvement in knowledge for different parameters. It was observed that 63.88, 59.72 and 55.55 per cent of the trainees were deviating knowledge on types of mushroom, preservation techniques and importance of casing after training. Thus, it can be inferred that exposure to training had increased the knowledge of respondents related to all the sub-components of mushroom production. It may therefore, be concluded that trainees succeeded in acquiring knowledge after exposure to training on mushroom production.