Cost benefit analysis and marketing of oyster mushroom in Kangra valley, Himachal Pradesh, India

This study examines the cost and return structures, breakeven level, production and disposal, marketing channels and pattern and disposal of oyster mushroom between two farm categories. Total cost of production on small farms was found out to be Rs. 17055 which was more than large farms of Rs. 12,051 because of economies of scale. The total production /100 bags and gross return also show the same trend, but on the other hand in case of net return the result was opposite due to the fact that cost of production was more on small farms than on large farms. The break even analysis suggested that the growers were in no profit and no loss situation when they kept 39 compost bags with a break even output of 100 kgs in overall situation. The study also suggested that as the farm size increases, the marketed surplus also increases. From marketing perspective, only two marketing channels were adopted by the oyster mushroom growers for disposal of their produce in the study area; first one is Oyster mushroom grower-------Consumer and the second one is Oyster mushroom grower-----Retailer------Consumer. It was found that channel-2 was the widely used channel by which 88.65 per cent of the total produce was marketed by 57.69 per cent of the total growers.