PROTECTED CULTIVATION AND SECONDARY AGRICULTURE

Table of Contents-

Protected cultivation and secondary agriculture.

What is protected cultivation?

Protected cultivation is a type of farming in which the crops are grown isolated in a controlled environment without any intervention of climate issues for increasing yield and producing a high-quality product with minimal use of harmful pesticides.

The trend of protected cultivation and secondary agriculture is continuously expanding because of it’s:-

Increased productivity per unit input and land,
Improved product quality,
Water-use efficiency,
Reduced use of pesticides,
Disease control,

Countries like Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain. Together, they formed a network to enhance inter-country cooperation for the improvement of production and protected cultivation and secondary agriculture technology.

To know more about the protected cultivation checkout the link!

Greenhouse micro-climate

Initially, greenhouse cultivation was to grow heat-demanding crops during the winter season in temperate countries.
In the warm season where there is high solar radiation and the temperature exceeds the recommended maximum threshold level, the greenhouse effect has an adverse impact on the microclimate and crop performance.
Effect and can be regulated by extent by proper ventilation and/or cooling of the greenhouse.

The greenhouse effect is the amalgamation of two different effects:

Confinement effect(due to reduced air exchange with the external environment),
The effect caused by cladding material by its low transparency to far-infrared and other radiation within the greenhouse, but the material is more transparent to sunlight.

Checkout the link to have a deep insight about the 10 Best Backyard Greenhouses to Grow Plants All Year Long !

In screen-houses, the greenhouse effect is less, as the confinement effect is very limited and the sunlight is lesser than plastic films and it cant protect from heavy rainfalls.

If you are using screen house at home then it’s okay but for commercial purposes, plastic cladding material is best till known.

The most commonly grown vegetables in greenhouses are vegetables with medium thermal requirements:-

Tomato,
Pepper,
Cucumber,
Melon,
Watermelon,
Green bean,
Eggplant or brinjal,
Squash,
Ornamental flowers.

Greenhouse production

The main thing to consider while setting up a greenhouse is:-

The product should be marketed smoothly.
Which commodities will be produced (edible or ornamental)?
According to the demographics of the area, you can decide the profitable produce.

Factors determining location and site selection of greenhouse are:-

Cost of production, quality of produced yield.
Transportation cost to markets.
These both depend on local climate and greenhouse growing conditions.
The cost of investment depends mainly on the local climate because of equipment addition.
In addition to transportation, marketing, packing etc. also affects the overall cost of the products.
Economic results determine the final selection of a greenhouse project location.

Climate suitability for protected cultivation

Today’s protected cultication and secondary agriculture technologies mean it is possible to cultivate all horticultural crops in any region of the world, by designing and equipped to control the climatic parameters.

But, for profitability particular region is selected to match the climatic requirements for horticultural crops as it entails significant and expensive artificial climate control.

The type of greenhouse adopted depends on the region’s climatic characteristics and on the crop requirements For eg. the umbrella effect for protection from rain and snow.

Temperature threshold in protected cultivation

The temperature outside below 10ºC and above 30ºC can cause a decrease in profitability due to energy consumption in maintaining the greenhouse.

Temperatures of 17–27 ºC in coastal areas.
17º–22 ºC in inland areas (far from the sea).
Inland areas (around 20 ºC) are higher than those of coastal areas (10 ºC) due to humidity in coastal areas.
Min. daily radiation requirements of these species are estimated at around 8.5 MJ m-2.
Total solar radiation depends on the geographical latitude and the time of the year.

Cultivation without active climate control equipment is 12–22 °C in coastal areas and 12–17 °C in inland areas.

If these limitations are crossed heating, mechanical ventilation and the cooling system ought to be on!

Protected cultivation in greenhouses cause an increase in daytime temp highly but it also depends on cladding material, outside wind velocity, incident solar radiation, transpiration of the crop grown inside the greenhouse.

Conclusion

Protected cultivation and secondary agriculture is the best way for enhancing farming produce with good quality products developing countries should adopt this cultivation on a large scale so can get clean vegetables 100% pesticide-free produce will be on our plates.

If you want to know more about site selection in protected cultivation and secondary agriculture cultivation click here