Income from growing of mushrooms cannot be treated as an agricultural income

Agriculture can be performed only on land and which involve basic operations like tilling of land, sowing of the seeds, planting and similar operations on the land. In case before us no tilling or planting has been done. Admittedly there is no land on which tilling operations etc. is carried out.

As stated by the Assessing Officer the entire activity is carried on as a business in residential area and mushrooms are grown under controlled conditions. The basic operations which are required by an agriculturist on the land are missing in the assessee’s case. Even if, growing of mushroom necessarily involve use of some soil, it could not by itself amount to carrying on a primary agricultural operation in the sense of cultivation of the soil. The assessee has failed to explain as to how it can be claimed that basic agricultural operations were carried out in mushroom production and how expenditure is incurred on primary operations i.e. planting of mushroom etc. and in the secondary operations for preserving it and making it marketable. In the light of these facts in our considered view, the Assessing officer has rightly treated the income from growing of mushroom as non-agricultural income.

 Apart from above there is a further condition that such land should be assessed to land revenue which has also not been fulfilled by the assessee. There is yet another condition that such land should not be situated within Municipal limits whereas the Assessing Officer has given a clear-cut finding that the shed in which mushrooms were grown by the assessee, is located within the residential area of Jagadhari which is situated within Municipal limits. Therefore in view of these facts also the income earned by the assessee from growing of mushrooms cannot be treated as agricultural income. In view of this legal position we uphold the order of the learned Commissioner (Appeals).