J&K's Gucchi Mushroom strives to achieve GI tag
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Jammu, Jan 19: The Jammu and Kashmir Government has recently sought the GI tag for Gucchi mushroom. The Gucchi mushrooms are highly expensive and are full of health benefits. Recently, GI Tag was provided to Saffron of Jammu and Kashmir. The Gucchi mushrooms are locally called 'Thuntoo' and 500 gm of Gucchi mushrooms cost Rs 18,000. The GI tag application for Gucchi mushroom was filed at the Geographical Indication Registry recently by Jammu-based NGO Border World Foundation and facilitated by the Director of Agriculture, J&K.
Gucchi mushroom is a species of fungus belonging to the family Morchellaceae. They are pale yellow in color with large ridges and pits on their cap. They are raised on a large white stem. The Gucchi mushrooms are rich in vitamins, potassium and copper. They are also rich in Vitamin-D. further they are rich in antioxidants that prevent health issues such as heart diseases and diabetes.
The Gucchi mushrooms prefer soil with limestone base. They also grow in acid soils. The Gucchi mushrooms are usually found in early spring. They are referred to as 'May Mushrooms' in North America. The time of fruiting of the mushrooms varies locally from February to July. In Canada, they appear only after June. However, the Gucchi mushrooms cannot be cultivated commercially. They grow in the conifer forests of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. It takes months for the villagers to collect these mushrooms, dry them and bring them to the market. The Gucchi mushrooms grow in clusters on logs of decaying wood, humus soil and leaves.
They may not grow in the same spot the next season. This makes the process of collection more tedious. Due to these reasons, the Gucchi mushrooms are highly expensive. The Guchhi mushrooms cannot be cultivated commercially for their nature of germination. They germinate and grow in low temperature soil. They usually appear after fires. The fruiting of Gucchi mushrooms require alkaline conditions produced by wood ash mixed with water. These criteria make commercial cultivation of Gucchi highly challenging.