Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of some members of a lower group of plants known as fungi. It is somewhat like the fruit of a plant, except that the "seeds" it produces are in fact millions of microscopic spores that form in the gills or pores underneath the mushroom's cap. 

Mushrooms have high economic value in their uses as food and in medicines. Mushroom cultivation has lucrative business prospects for self employment/employment generation. 

Botany Department of Deshbandhu College has set up Mushroom Cultivation Training Centre.  Currently we have four varieties of Mushroom growing in our mushroom training centre:

Pink Oyester Mushroom (Pleurotus djamor)

Pearl Oyester Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus)

Lion's mane mushroom (Hericium erinaceus)

Shiitake (Lentinus edodes)

Plant tissue culture is a group of techniques used to maintain or grow plant cells, tissues or organs under sterile conditions on a nutrient culture medium of known composition. It is widely used for micropropagation.  Our Department has a fully functional tissue culture facility for teaching and research purposes. 

Department of Botany has set up Hydroponics in the Botanical Garden of Deshbandhu College. Hydroponics is the technique of growing plants using water-based nutrient solution rather than soil, and can include an aggregate substrate, or growing media, such as vermiculite, coconut coir, or perlite. Hydroponic production systems are used by small farmers, hobbyists, and commercial enterprises. It is a fast-growing but ancient gardening technique using water based nutrient system. 

Our department has set up two types of hydroponic systems: 1) NFT which is Nutrient Film Technique Set Up and 2) Vertical Farming Setup. This facility will enable the department to introduce  the Skill Enhancement Course- “Hydroponics and Aeroponics Farming”. 

Hydroponic setups have a number of benefits such as higher yield, less overall water usage, fewer chemicals, and continuous indoor or outdoor growth. Hydroponics cultures lead to highest biomass and protein production compared to other growth substrates, of plants cultivated in the same environmental conditions and supplied with equal amount of nutrients. Since hydroponics uses very less water and nutrients for production, it could be possible in future for people in harsh environments with little accessible water to grow their own plant based food. Hydroponics is not only used on Earth, but has also proven itself in plant production experiments in space.