History

Mushroom Society of India (MSI) is located in DMR, Chambaghat, Solan (HP), India. It was established in August 1990, registered in 1991 (under society registration Act 1860 vide No.60/91 dated 21.05.1991 at Solan, Himachal Pradesh) with only 10 founder members and the first issue of Mushroom Research was published in 1992.  Since then the society is publishing the journal biannually. Dr. K.L. Chadha was the guiding force at the apex for establishing and strengthening the mushroom research infrastructure in the country and was the founder President of MSI. Dr. B.L. Dhar was the Founder Secretary of MSI and played important role in  extending the membership of the MSI in India and abroad.

The society has been led by eminent scientists in the field of mushroom research since then. The following spearheaded the society and took it to greater heights by their selfless service for promotion of mushroom research and dissemination of knowledge through conferences, brain storming sessions, meeting etc.  

Year President Vice President Secretary Joint Sec Treasurer
8.4.1991-10.3.1999 Dr KL Chadha  Dr SR Sharma,  Mr Jagdev Singh Dr BL Dhar  Dr Kiran Thakur Dr B Vijay
11.3.1999-22.2.2001 Dr RN Verma Dr RP Tewari Dr BL Dhar Dr SK Singh Dr B Vijay
23.2.2001-12.8.2004 Dr RN Verma Dr B Vijay Dr RC Upadhyay Dr SK Singh Dr MC Yadav
13.8.2004-31.3. 2009 Dr RP Tewari Dr RD Rai Dr RC Upadhyay Dr Satish Kumar Dr MC Yadav
1.4.2009-31.5.2011 Dr RP Singh Dr RC Upadhyay Dr Satish Kumar Dr MP Sagar  
1.6.2011-30.4.2016 Dr Manjit Singh Dr RC Upadhyay Dr B Vijay Dr Shwet Kamal Mr Y Gautam/Dr K Manikandan
1.5.2016-31.8.2019 Dr VP Sharma Dr Satish Kumar Dr Shwet Kamal Dr M Shirur Dr Y Gautam
1.9.2019-24.2.2022 Dr VP Sharma Dr Satish Kumar Dr Shwet Kamal Dr Anil Kumar Rao Dr Satish Kumar
25.2.2022- Dr Manjit Singh Dr NS Atri Dr Anil Kumar Rao Dr GT Mala Dr Anuradha Srivastava

Dr. RD Rai was the first Editor-in-Chief and served up to 2004. Dr. SK Singh was Editor-in-Chief from 2004-2009, Dr MC Yadav from 2009-2011, Dr Manjit Singh from 2011-2015 and Dr VP Sharma from 2015 till date.  

The first conference was organised in 1994 at NCMRT Solan by Dr. BL Dhar. He also organised second Indian Mushroom Conference in the year 1997 that was well attended by the delegates from all over India and abroad. Since then the society has been organising national conferences and brain storming sessions/interactions from time to time. Society organized International Conference on Mushroom  Biology and Mushroom Products in 2014 in collaboration with WSMBMP. Conferences held till date are as below. Proceedings of these conferences can be downloaded from publication menu (pull down menu – free downloads).

Year

Conference date & location

Conference theme

Chairman

Organizing Secretary

1994

8-10 April 1994
NRC Mushroom-(now ICAR-DMR) Solan

National Symposium on Mushrooms- 1st Indian Mushroom Conference-1994

Dr KL Chadha

Dr BL Dhar

1997

Sept 10-12, 1997
NRC Mushroom-(now ICAR-DMR) Solan)

Advances in mushroom Biology and Production-2nd Indian Mushroom Conference-1997

Dr KL Chadha

Dr BL Dhar

2002

6-7 March 2002
TNAU Coimbatore

Current Vistas in Mushroom Biology and Production- 3rd Indian Mushroom Conference

Dr S Kanniyan

Dr RC Upadhyay

2007

10-11 Feb 2007
NRC Mushroom-(now ICAR-DMR) Solan)

International Conference in Mushroom Biology and Biotechnology

Dr RP Tiwari

Dr RD Rai

2010

1st June 2010
IIHR Banglore

Brain storming session on ’50 years of Mushroom Research’

Manjit Singh

Dr Satish Kumar

2013

16-17 April 2013
PAU, Ludhiana

Indian Mushroom Conference-2013

Dr PK Khanna

Dr B Vijay

2014

 19-22 Nov. 2014
NASC Delhi

8th International Conference on Mushroom Biology and Mushroom Products

Dr Manjit Singh

Dr RC Upadhyay

2017

27-28 April 2017
ICAR-DMR Solan

National symposium on Mushrooms- Trends and innovations in Mushroom Science

Dr VP Sharma

Dr Satish Kumar

2021

15-17 April 2021
Online (ICAR-DMR Solan)

National Mushroom Web conference on: Mushroom Biology- Challenges and opportunities

Dr VP Sharma

Dr Shwet Kamal

2022

25 April 2022
Online (ICAR-DMR Solan)

Brainstorming session on “Necessity for judicious use of pesticides”

Dr VP Sharma

Dr Anil Rao

Society has been regularly organizing Yadavindra Young Scientist award competition during these conferences/symposia. The following were awarded:

Year

Topic

Name

1994

Potential of Pleurotus sajor-caju for biocontrol of Aphelencoides composticola during Agaricus bisporus cultivation

Dr VP Sharma, YSP UHF Nauni

1997

Biology and management of false truffle (Diehliomyces microsporus) during cultivation of Agaricus spp.

Dr VP Sharma, YSP UHF Nauni

2002

Molecular breeding for development of genetically improved strains and hybrids of Agaricus bisporus

Dr MC Yadav, NRCM Solan

2007

Breaking the barriers of conventional mushroom breeding protoplast fusion can bring revolution in the MushWorld

Ms Uttra Bhattacharyya, Bose Institute, Kolkata

2013


Zero Energy poly tunnel: Rapid compositing method for Agaricus bisporus cultivation

Dr Goraksha C. Wackchaure, ICAR-DMR Solan

Studies  on genetic biodiversity and  lentinan among Lentinula edodes strains

Dr Shivani Sharma, PAU Ludhiana

2017

Study of mycelial growth rate and extra cellular enzyme activities as a combined tool to select the shiitake strains for cultivation on wheat straw

Dr Sudheer Annepu, ICAR-DMR Solan

2021

Development and characterization of sporeless strain in Pleurotus ostreatus

Dr Anupam Barh, ICAR-DMR Solan