Developing a web based portal to promote Greenhouse Agriculture in India - a project by Jalaj Desai

        Greenhouses are framed or inflated structures covered with transparent or translucent material large enough to grow crops under partial or fully controlled environmental conditions to get optimum growth and productivity.

Advantages of Greenhouses:

• The yield may be 10-12 times higher than that of outdoor cultivation depending upon the type of greenhouse, type of crop, environmental control facilities.
• Year round production of floricultural crops. Off-season production of vegetable and fruit crops.
• Water requirement of crops very limited and easy to control.
• Modern techniques of Hydroponic (Soil less culture), Aeroponics and Nutrient film techniques are possible only under greenhouse cultivation.

                    Greenhouses are being built in the Ladakh region for extending the growing season of vegetables from 3 to 8 months. In the North-East, greenhouses are being constructed essentially as rain shelters to permit off-season vegetable production. In the Northern plains, seedlings of vegetables and flowers are being raised in the greenhouses either for capturing the early markets or to improve the quality of the seedlings.

Methodology:

• The portal would be a one stop destination for all information regarding Green Houses: Types of greenhouse, how to construct a green house, Crops/Fruits/Flowers that can be grown in a greenhouse etc
• It would also have success stories of farmers who have implemented greenhouse farming for cultivation of vegetables and fruits
• The website would also have a list of experts from Academia and practioners with their contact details who could help the user in solving problems regarding building a Greenhouse.
• Other feature of the portal would be to link all Government agriculture schemes related to sustainable agriculture and specifically green houses so that users know of the assistance provided by government in promoting Greenhouses
• Another section of the portal would be dedicated to reporting any recent research and developments in this particular field.
• Information about the markets to sell the greenhouse produce could also be uploaded on the website
• I feel that building a website would help students, farmers, researchers and people having entrepreneurial ambitions in this field gain access to all information that is needed to be successfully practice greenhouse cultivation.