Even though mushrooms have been domesticated for cultivation since early times, the most commonly grown strains are temperate species.
Tropical mushrooms are, however, numerous, and recent studies on various genera have shown them to be specious.
Numerous new species have been introduced to science with some being edible and other having medicinal use.
Therefore domesticating tropical mushrooms provides an enormous opportunity for tropical and subtropical countries.
Most tropical mushrooms grow rapidly and produce fruiting bodies at 25o and thus can be produced more quickly than temperate species.
The tropical mushrooms can also be produced on readily available and cheap waste products such as saw dust, corn cobs, rice straw, sugarcane bagasse, and other forest and agricultural wastes.
Therefore growing new tropical mushrooms will help recycle agricultural and forest waste products, provide income to various entrepreneurs and local industries, provide nutritional and medicinal foods and prevent pollution through less dumping and burning of agricultural waste.