Sunday, April 21, 2013

Power crisis pushes mushroom growers to hills

Chennai :
Mushroom growers are now looking to the hills to cultivate the crop rather than on plains due to the power crisis in the state.
Addressing a press conference Saptarishi Agro Industries Ltd director Arvind Kalra said that his firm which has been one of the biggest mushroom growers in Tamil Nadu has decided to move to the Hills of Nilgiris rather than continue waiting for the power situation to improve.
He said that since the shortage of electricity from November 2008 and moreover for the reason of unavailability of continuous power from the TNEB, it has become unviable to grow button mushrooms in the plain areas of Tamil Nadu.
The management identifies power unavailability as a major threat to its production activities and hence it is unable to take production from the existing facilities. The situation for a plentiful availability of electricity in the state is likely to take considerable time.
Saptarishi is having its production facility near Chennai in Kancheepuram District and has been supplying button mushrooms all over Tamil Nadu, parts of Karnataka, Orissa, and to some extent Mumbai and Kolkata.
The company  can produce  mushrooms if it has growing facilities at an altitude of 4000 feet where  room temperature of 16 to 18 degree  Celsius  can be maintained without much difficulty for up to 10 months in a year. As such, the company is in the process of implementing its decision to shift to the Nilgiris, he added.

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