Production of High Value Crops Under Controlled Environment
August 5-2013
Production of High Value Crops Under Controlled Environment
The world market for food and other crops is expanding with the increase in global population. Therefore, dire need is to invest more for the purpose of food security. Pakistan is also one of the highly populated country in the world due to which its consumption for different fruits & vegetables is also increasing day by day. Due to limited shelf life of fruits and vegetables, their availability in off seasons is not only uncertain but these are also quite expensive. In order to meet the growing demand of vegetables and other high value crops including medicinal plants, spices and flowers, hi-tech and environmentally controlled green houses for growing these products have been developed in the world.
Growing of these crops in conventional or hydroponics green houses helps increase in productivity by several times beside cheaper and ensured availability in fresh form during off-seasons. It is proposed that growing of high value crops and flowers in environmentally controlled green houses, specially in the areas where summer temperature do not rise beyond 35 oC can be very economical and profitable. Some of the parameters which require environmental control in green house include corbon-di-oxide, light, humidity and temperature. Government of the Punjab, Agriculture Department pledge to facilitate the foreign investors alongwith provision of technical services through its Field (Engineering) and Marketing Wings to establish a joint venture with local counterparts in the Punjab.