Mushrooms in Swiss Departmental Stores : The Flash Back of Nepalese Scenario

Morchella (Morels) Mushrooms in the Deparment Stores
 at Birmensdorf, Switzerland @ Shiva Devkota

Being a mushrooms lover, I am pleased to find Agaricus and Morchella (Morels) mushrooms in the supermarket nearby our WSL guest house. As compared to Nepal, price of Agaricus (called Dalley chyau or Gobrey chyau in Nepal) is expensive but Morchella or morels (Guchhi chyau / Mattheura in Nepali) is very cheap. Another interesting feature is even in this season we can buy wild mushrooms here.

Agaricus (Dalley Chyau) mushrooms
 in sell (1 Swiss Frank = NRs 90 only)
@ Shiva Devkota

Prof Dr Senn Beatrice, a well known wild mushrooms expert from Switzerland is also working in the same department, where I am doing my research work.  In my last visit, while we were discussing about the poisoning cases in Switzerland, she expressed her happiness in finding the regulating and monitoring centers in different corners of Switzerland. Collectors can bring their samples to test, if they got confused regarding edible or poisonous mushrooms. So, almost no chance to eat poisonous mushrooms in Switzerland.

In Nepal, annually more than 50 mushrooms collectors are loosing their life, simply due to poisonous mushrooms. Its so pity to us. Still the Nepal Government and high level research institutes are not paying attention in these serious issues. Proper research and awareness programmes are still lacking in Nepal. 

Wild mushrooms in sell at Denner Supermaket,
Birmensdorf, nearby Zurich  @ Shiva Devkota

I am trying to disseminate the knowledge on edible and poisonous mushrooms of Nepal in different forms like short papers, media interviews and research paper publications and presentations. It really hurts with the poisoning cases. 

Myself: I love this picture very much.
 It was taken at nearby Dakshinkali in 2005
 while I was preparing my M.Sc. 
dissertation on mushrooms. Indigenous 

knowledge is the only a way to identify edible 
and poisonous mushrooms in Nepal.

Today while visiting nearby market, I really impressed with the systems. I hope and wish we could also start this kind of packaging and marketing system of wild mushrooms in Nepal. If you have some ideas and concepts to work in Nepalese wild mushrooms either in Diversity, Ecology, Ethnomycology, Cultivation and Marketing, Domestication of Wild mushrooms, please feel free to write me shiva.devkota@gmail.com. I  would be pleased to provide the information whatever I compiled in last 8 years of my research period. We can work together in various aspects of mushrooms and such research are still awaiting.