Pilot Study to Develop Sampling Methodology for Estimation of Production of Mushroom Crop

Abstract

The survey is pilot in nature. The primary data have been collected in Sonepat district of Haryana state pertaining to Button Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) crop from November 2007 to April 2008 as Haryana state is the third leading state in the production of mushroom crop after Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and Sonepat district is producing maximum mushroom in the district. The other mushroom producing states are Kerala. J & K, Himachal Predesh, Punjab and Uttar Predesh. The data pertaining to sheds area for raising mushroom, number of columns in each shed and the number of racks in each column, weight of wet compost used, spawn consumed, straw used, processing of mushroom after picking, disposal of produce etc. has been collected from the selected mushroom growers in each of the selected village by enquiry method. The sampling design is stratified two-stage random sampling with blocks/group of blocks as strata, mushroom-growing villages as primary sampling unit and mushroom growing cultivators as the ultimate unit of selection. All the 6 blocks in the district were stratified into 3 strata by suitably combing the adjoining blocks. These three strata are Gannaur, Sonepat and Rai. A total of 8 villages, 3 from each of Gannaur and Sonepat and 2 from Rai were selected by simple random sampling without replacement.