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| Greenhouse farming answer to rampage by global warming |
| Press Trust of India / Berhampur (Orissa) Sep 18, 2009, 10:48 IST |
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As warming of the climate gathers alarming pace posing a danger to agriculture, greenhouse cultivation is the only answer to save crops of flowers and vegetables, experts have said.
Greenhouse farming, which is cultivation of plants inside a building with glass walls and roof under controlled condition, has become necessary as temperature ideally required for flower cultivation is no longer available, not even during winter.
Floriculturists say that the ideal day and night temperatures for flower cultivation are 28 and 18 degrees celsius respectively. However, they point out, the temperature in most parts of the country remained above this level even in the peak winter season.
Sanjay Parade, training coordinator and manager of the Horticulture Training Center (HTC), Pune said that the gradual warming of temperature would finally tell on flower production in the country. India is a major exporter of flowers.
In the wake of the climate change, greenhouse farming is the only way to protect crops and manage a better yield than in normal condition.
Farming under controlled condition, Parade said, protects crops from wind, rain, radiation, and precipitation. HTC is imparting training to farmers in greehouse technology for higher productivity, he said.
Also 20 per cent subsidy was given for the greenhouse flower cultivation, a senior assistant director of the National Horticulture Board, S C Panwar, said.
While over 1,30,000 hectares of area were under flower cultivation in the country, only 1,100 hectares now come under protected cultivation, the HTC manager said.
He pointed out while farmers in several other states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh adopted the greenhouse technology, the farmers in Orissa were yet to start on it, he pointed out.
In Orissa, head of the Flowers Growers Association Nirmal Nayak said, 6000 hectares in Orissa were at present under flower cultivation. He said out of a total of 76,55,000 metric tonnes of flowers produced in the country, 80 per cent are Indian roses, 10 per cent are gerbra and jasmine.
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