Agricultural Engineering Today
Year : 2000, Volume : 24, Issue : 2
First page : ( 63) Last page : ( 70)
Print ISSN : 0970-2962.

Energy requirement for greenhouse cultivation

Chandra Pitam, Gupta Mathala J.

The authors are Principal Scientist & Head, National Phytotron Facility and Sientist, Division of Agril. Engineering, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa,New Delhi-110 012.

Based on the paper presented in the expert panel discussion on Energy Management for Sustainable Production system during the International Conference on Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Agril. Production in the 21^st Century, at New Delhi during February 14–18, 2000.

Abstract

Input energy assessment has been carried out for the greenhouse cultivation of tomato and it has been compared with the input energy for the open field cultivation. The assessment indicates that the energy input per unit produce is 1. 7 MJ/kg under open field cultivation. The input energy requirements for greenhouse cultivation increase due to the green house frame, glazing, inorganic fertilizers and environmental control and are estimated to be 4.2 MJ/kg at the minimum. The energy requirements under north Indian plains are likely to be 32 MJ/kg or more with the traditional methods of environmental control. The assessment of input energy in the two crop production systems indicates the priorities for input energy optimizations.

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