Social status of oyster mushroom enterprisers in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra

Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of macro fungi. Today there are many species of mushrooms they are cultivated for edible, medicinal use and many nutritive value. Chaina was the largest producer of mushrooms in the world in 2020. India has tremendous potential for mushroom production and all commercial edible and medicinal mushrooms can be grown. Pleurotus spp. (Oyster mushroom): It is one of the species of mushroom which is commonly cultivated in India known as Dhingri is an important edible mushroom gaining popularity in recent years because of its high nutritional value and ability to grow on diverse agricultural wastes. A sample of 60 respondents was selected randomly. They were categorized on the basis of numbers of beds into small, medium and large respondents selected for the oyster mushroom growers of Chandrapur district and from near Nagpur district was also included. Primary data was collected by personal interview method with the help of pre-test well prepared interview schedule for the year 2021-2022.Socio-economic characteristics of mushroom entrepreneurs were estimated. Average age of mushroom entrepreneurs estimated was for small 32.25, medium 32 and for large 32.35 which states that the experienced person as well as new generation were engaged in the mushroom cultivation. Results show that the level of education of the mushroom entrepreneurs obtained was for small 11.1, medium 13.35 and for large 12.75 i.e. the educational level of selected entrepreneurs was near the graduation and above the higher secondary school.