In 1983 Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the apex body for agricultural research and education in the country, established National Research Centre for Mushroom, NRCM at Solan, Himachal Pradesh, with a mandate to carry out research, training and extension on all aspects of mushrooms in the country. The Centre besides conservation and maintenance of the germplasm of edible fungi, has strengthened its activities on improving the strains and the crop husbandry practices of the button mushrooms, accelerated the programmes on diversification of species and has generated valuable information on oyster, shiitake, black ear and giant mushroom.