Economic feasibility of polyhouse vegetable cultivation in Kerala

Abstract

The conventional vegetable cultivation in Kerala is limited by several biotic and abiotic factors. Protected cultivation involving polyhouse has emerged as a novel technology to increase the productivity, to protect the plants from biotic and abiotic stresses and to break the seasonal barriers of production. The paper analysed the economic feasibility of vegetable cultivation under polyhouse production in Kerala. Among the major polyhouse grown crops and crop sequence, sole crop of salad cucumber and crop sequence with two crops of cowpea and one crop of salad cucumber were found economically feasible and profitable. Even though high profitability was observed for sole crop of salad cucumber, the cultivation of the crop sequence is recommended considering agronomic and market related factors. Selection of crops according to the market demand, coinciding cultivation with higher market price, farmer’s cluster approach in polyhouse cultivation etc. are suggested to further improve the profitability and to tackle market instabilities. Research efforts directed towards reducing the establishment cost of polyhouse, development and release of high yielding and hybrid varieties in public sector, development of farm machineries suitable to polyhouses are also recommended.