The President of Chamber of Agriculture, Karachi, Sindh, Abdullah Rafi, has advised vegetable growers to adopt different methods to grow off-season vegetables in Pakistan to gain additional income. These methods include growing beneath the sarkanda building of green houses, plastic tunnel, etc.
He said Sarkanda is an old method and is usually adopted near the big cities. The main vegetables grown under this method are tomato, chilli, cucumber and bottle gourd. The nursery of these vegetables is planned in October-November and a wall of sarkanda is affixed in the direction of north-south, which protects plants from cold winds and mist/frost.
Another method which is more successful is building green houses. Under green houses the sunshine intensity is controlled. The vegetables under this method are grown mostly in winter season. Here, the temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, ventilation of air and irrigation, etc is controlled. The main drawback in this method is heavy capital cost.
The third and most feasible method is cultivating off-season vegetables is under plastic tunnel. This method is most popular because of low cost and easy usage. Plastic plays a barrier against the cool air in winter. He pointed out that normally off-season vegetables are grown in the areas where the climate is moderate for both normal as well as for off-season.
Winter vegetables are grown in summer on hilly, semi-hilly areas where climatic conditions are favourable for a particular vegetable. Likewise, summer vegetables are grown in winter season in the valleys and across the sea areas. He said use of artificial methods for growing off-season vegetables near market place will help save heavy transportation cost and reduce post-harvest losses.
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