After the advent of green revolution, more emphasis is laid on the quality of the agricultural product along with the quantity of production to meet the ever-growing food and nutritional requirements. Both these demands can be met when the environment for the plant growth is suitably controlled. The need to protect the crops against unfavourable environmental conditions led to the development of protected agriculture. Greenhouse is the most practical method of achieving the objectives of protected agriculture, where natural environment is modified by using sound engineering principles to achieve optimum plant growth and yield. Poly house cultivation has become an important policy of Indian Agriculture.
Protected cultivation practices can be defined as a cropping technique wherein the micro climate surrounding the plant body is controlled partially or fully as per the requirement of the vegetable /flower species grown during their period of growth.
With the advancement in agriculture various types of protected cultivation practices suitable for a specific type of agro- climatic zone have emerged. Among these protective cultivation practices, Green house, Plastic house, Cloth house, Net house and shade house etc. is useful.
A greenhouse is a framed or inflated structure covered with a transparent or translucent material in which crops could be grown under the conditions of at least partially controlled environment and which is large enough to permit a person to work within it to carry out cultural operations.
Importance of Protected cultivation:
1.Crop is protected from cold, wind, storm, rain and frost.
2.Due to controlled conditions there is better germination, plant growth and crops mature faster.
3.Improved quality & quantity of produce with long shelf life.
4.Use of water is optimized and there is reduction in its consumption by 40-50%.
5.Effective utilization of inputs
6.Incidence of disease and pests is reduced or eliminated.
7.Crops can be grown throughout the year.
8.Best technology for commercial production of high value crops like flowers, medicinal plants, etc.
9.Can be used for solar drying of farm produce.
10.Involvement of labor force can be reduced.
11.Crop cultivation under inclement climatic conditions.
12.Certain crops cultivated year round to meet the market demands.
13.High value and high quality, even organic, crops grown for export markets
14.Income from small land holdings increased several fold.
15.Successful nurseries from seeds or by vegetative propagation prepared as and when necessary.
16.More Self-employment opportunities for educated youth on farm.
17.Manipulation of microclimate and insect proof feature of the greenhouse for plant breeding and, thus, the evolution of new varieties and production of seeds.
Scope of protected cultivation in India:
The scope in Indian horticulture is tremendous. If popularly organized, the promising fields having wide scope for protected cultivation in India are
1.Cultivation in problematic agro-climate: In India majority of uncultivated area is under problematic conditions such as barren, uncultivable fallow lands and desserts. Even a fraction of this area brought under greenhouse cultivation could produce substantial returns for the local inhabitants.
2.Greenhouses around big cities: The substantial demand persists for fresh vegetables and ornamentals around the year in big cities. Demand for off season and high value crops also exists in big cities. Therefore greenhouse cultivation can be promoted to meet the urban requirements.
3.Export of horticultural produce: There is a good international demand for horticultural produce, mainly the cut flowers. Promotion of greenhouse cultivation/ protected cultivation of export oriented crops will be of definite help towards export promotion.
4.Greenhouses for plant propagation: GH technology is being now a days considered as suitable approach for raising of seedlings and cuttings which require control environment for their growth.GH facility could increase the capacity and quality of producing the plant material.
5.Greenhouse technology for biotechnology: Material generated through tissue culture are need to be propagated in control environment. The hydroponics or Nutrient Film Technique（NFT) are also required controlled environmental conditions for growing plants.
6.Greenhouse for cultivation of rare and medicinal plants: India has wide variety of medicinal herbs and rare plants like orchids which have been identified for large scale cultivation. The greenhouse could provide the right type of environmental conditions for the intensive cultivation of these plants.
Status of protected cultivation In World:
Greenhouse crop production is now a growing reality throughout the world with an estimated 405,000 ha of greenhouses spread over all the continents. There are more than 55 countries now in the world where cultivation of crops is undertaken on a commercial scale under cover, and it is continuously growing at a fast rate internationally.
In India, protected cultivation technology for commercial production is hardly three decades old(DRDO). In developed countries viz., Japan, Holland, Russia, UK, China and others, it is about two century old. China started protected cultivation in 1990's and today the area under protected cultivation in China is more than 2.5 m ha and 90 per cent area is under vegetables. China alone has more acreage of horticultural crops production under protection than that of the other continents combined. In 2010, there were more than 4 million ha protected vegetable (including melon and watermelon) production in China, which was over 95% of all protected production in China, and over 80% of all protected vegetable production in the world. Protected cultivation facilities in Asia range from low-cost polytunnels made of recyclable materials, which rely mostly on natural solar energy input, to very expensive and sophisticated plant factories, which exclude natural solar energy and rely almost exclusively on artificial energy input. Many horticultural crops (including those unique in Asia) and different stages of plants (including transplants, container plants, plants to harvest fruits and vegetables, etc.) could be produced profitably under various forms of protected cultivation. With the high adoption of protected cultivation in Asia, there is continuous new development in horticultural crops research and production and development in the related industries
Israel is one country which has taken big advantage of this technology by producing quality fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc. in water deficit desert area. Several thousand acres are now under glass in the United States and equally large area in England and Holland, where horticulture under glass was practiced over a century ago.
Status of protected cultivation In India:
India's first exposure to truly hi-tech
protected farming of vegetables and other high-value horticultural produce came
through the Indo-Israel project on greenhouse cultivation, initiated at the New
Delhi-based
Indian Agricultural Research Institute(IARI)in 1998, shortly after the establishment
of diplomatic ties with that country. However, the Israeli experts left India
in 2003 at the end of this five-year project, IARI continued to maintain the
facility, calling it the Centre for Protected Cultivation Technology (CPCT). It
has, in the past 10 years, managed to refine and upscale the system to reduce
costs, besides designing greenhouse structure to suit local conditions. The
area under greenhouse cultivation reported by the end of 20th century was about
110 ha in India and world over 275. 000 hectare. During last decade this area
must have increased by 10 per cent if not more. The states that have consistently
expanded the area under protected cultivation for the period of 2007-2012 are
Andhra Pradesh. Gujarat, Maharashtra. Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West
Bengal. Maharashtra and Gujarat had a cumulative area of 5, 730. 23 hectares
and 4, 720. 72 hectares respectively under the protected cultivation till 2012.
Presently total area covered under protected cultivation in our country is approx.. 30,000 ha. Leading states area under protected cultivation are MH, KT, HP, & N-E STATES, UK, TN, & Punjab. The major crop grown in the protected cultivation are tomato, capsicum, melons, rose, gerbera, carnation, and chrysanthemum.
RAKESH KUMAR PATTNAIK
Asst. Prof. Horticulture
REFERENCES:
Kang, Yunyan; Chang, Yao-Chien Alex; Choi, Hyun-Sug; Gu, Mengmeng, 2013; Current and future status of protected cultivation techniques in Asia, Acta horticulturae, ISSN : 0567-7572
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