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Abstract: Cultivation of paddy straw mushroom, Volvariella volvacea (Bull. Ex. Fr.) Sing., was started in China over two hundred years ago (Chang, 1977). This mushroom is extensively cultivated in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Burma. Paddy straw is the most common substrate used for its cultivation, though it has also been successfully grown on other Substrates. These include straw of wheat, barley, oat, maize and sorghum (Guota et al, 1970), water hyacinth (Cheng and Mok, 1971), oil palm bunch waste and percarp waste (Naidu, 1971), horse dung compost (San Antonio and Fordyce, 1972), bamana leaves and sawdust (Chua and Ho, 1973). However, the yield was comparatively low on these substrates. Cotton waste as substrate was first introduced by Yau and Chang (1972). In the same year Chang (1972) also used cotton waste mixed with paddy straw for indoor experiments. The former was serving as a kind of heating material and latter as a composting material. At present the mushrooms are a delicacy on the menus of metropolitan hotels of Pakistan and are mostly imported from abroad. Although the local wild growing mushroom species are consumed by the local inhabitants, yet no effort has been made for the cultivation of mushrooms. The aim of this paper is to describe the research done on paddy straw mushroom cultivation and its prospects in Pakistan.
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