HI-TECH FARMING TO BE EVALUATED
The
government has undertaken a State-wide evaluation of the greenhouse technology
for protected cultivation of vegetables, under plans to identify and address
the problems faced by pioneering farmers who had adopted hi-tech farming
methods.The State Horticulture Mission - Kerala (SHM-K) has joined hands with
Kerala Agricultural University and the State Remote Sensing Agency to carry out
the evaluation. A special software supplied by the National Institute of Rural
Development, Hyderabad, has been deployed to map the geographic location of
each polyhouse and record data on crops, sowing, and harvesting.
“Our
field officials have been provided with Android phones equipped with the
software. They visit each polyhouse, record the details and advise the farmers
on soil nutrient management and pest and disease control methods. The data
generated through the exercise will be used to evaluate the hi-tech method of
farming. At a later stage, this baseline information can be used for effective
market intervention,” says K. Prathapan, Director, SHM-K.“With as many as 575
polyhouses constructed across the State, mainly in Palakkad, Thrissur, Wayanad,
Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram, the time has come to evaluate the technology
and make course corrections to make it more acceptable to farmers,” Director of
Agriculture R. Ajithkumar told The
Hindu. He said farmers had been demanding an increase in the standard
size of a polyhouse to accommodate more plants.
One of the drawbacks of the polyhouse method of cultivation is that only non-pollinated varieties can be grown because the plants are insulated from insects. “This effectively confines the utility of the greenhouse to the production of certain high value crops like tomato, salad cucumber, capsicum, and cowpea which have limited market demand,” says V.M. Abdul Hakkim, Head of the Precision Farming Development Centre (PFDC) under Kerala Agricultural University (KAU).Dr. Prathapan said efforts were on to use honeybees to grow pollinated varieties of vegetables in polyhouses, a technique popular in the Netherlands. “Our experiments reveal that the high humidity inside a polyhouse is an inhibiting factor.” The SHM-K is also experimenting with electric bees to induce artificial pollination inside polyhouses.Dr. Hakkim, however, sees the need to promote the rainshelter method of protected cultivation as a low- cost alternative to the polyhouse. Trials conducted by the PFDC had demonstrated significant increase in the off- season yield of vegetables like tomato, bhindi, capsicum, salad cucumber, China aster and gerbera when cultivated in rainshelters as compared to open field farming.
Dr.
Hakkim feels that the rainshelter method would be more acceptable for small and
marginal farmers. However, the absence of subsidy support has stymied efforts
to promote the rainshelter technique as a viable alternative. A rainshelter is
estimated to cost less than half of a polyhouse. Experts feel that a
reorientation of the subsidy system would be needed to promote the rainshelter
technique.P.Rajasekharan, Chief (Agriculture), Kerala State Planning Board,
said it would be advisable to have a mix of polyhouse, rainshelter and open
field cultivation of vegetables.He said hi-tech and precision farming methods
were being encouraged under a multiple strategy to promote entrepreneurship in
agriculture.
Prof. John Kurakar
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