Technology for Protected

Agriculture
CST 31042

02/05/2023 1
 CST 31042: Technology for Protected Agriculture; course
capsule

Protected Agriculture: Overview and Background, Site Selection for Protected

Agriculture, Technology for Protected Agriculture, Structures and Composition
of Green House, net houses and poly tunnels, Construction of Green House,
net houses, poly tunnels their cost estimation, Irrigation and Fertilization in
Protected Agriculture, Soil and growing media for Protected Agriculture,
Selection of Crops for Protected Agriculture, Horticultural Perspectives for
Protected Agriculture, Economics and Marketing.

02/05/2023 2
List of references:
• Nelson PV (2014). Green house operation and management (7th
addition), Pearsons education limited, Essex, England
• Castilla N (2013) Green house technology and management (2nd edition),
CABI publications, Oxford, UK.
• Ansari MN (2016) Green house design and control, SCITUS academics llc,
New York
• Reddy PP (2016) sustainable crop production under protected
cultivation. Springer publication

02/05/2023 3
Lecture 01

Protected Agriculture: an overview

and Background

02/05/2023 4
 ILO’s
• Define the term ‘protected agriculture’
• Evaluate the evolution of greenhouse technology
• Evaluate the current extent of protected house cultivations

02/05/2023 5
 What is protected agriculture?
• Protected agriculture is defined as a cropping technique wherein the
microenvironment surrounding plant is controlled partially/fully as per
the plant’s need during the period of growth to maximize the yield and
resource saving.
• Goals of protected agriculture is to obtain high value products through:
vegetables, fruits, flowers, ornamental plants, and seedlings

02/05/2023 6
 Figure 1 Figure 2

02/05/2023 7
02/05/2023 Low tunnels 8
 Present status of Protected agriculture
• Horticultural crops are commonly grown under protected agriculture
techniques
• Horticulture includes the cultivation of vegetables, fruits, cut flowers,
foliage plants and plants required for landscape gardening.
• In 2019, the world Greenhouse Vegetable cultivation area is 496,800 ha.
(1,228,000 ac.)  
• In 2019 the estimated global protected agriculture area is 5,630,000 ha.
(13,912,000 ac.) 
•  Top five producers of floriculture crops are USA, Japan, Netherland, Italy
and China

02/05/2023 9
02/05/2023 10
• In Sri Lanka, the trends for protected cultivation increases over the
past decade (2010- 2020)
• Typically, the annual export earnings through the cut-flowers &
foliage increase, thereby the protected agriculture industry is
expanding over the past five years (2015- 2019).

• “ Greenhouse” is defined as permanent structures, and generally

excludes tunnels, row covers, etc. 
• “Protected Agriculture” is defined as any crop “under cover

02/05/2023 11
02/05/2023 12
 Export of cut flower 2015-2019

02/05/2023 13
 Export of cut flower cont… (2015-2019)

02/05/2023 14
 Export of processed vegetables, fruits & juice 2015- 2019)

02/05/2023 15
 Brief history
• Protected agriculture has been used for centuries- date back to Roman
Empire.
• Cultivated cucumbers in small mobile structures.
• Sheets of mica and alabaster were used as enclosure materials. Later the
idea was dropped- system is unnatural.
• In 16th/17th century- precursors of greenhouses appeared in England,
France, Netherlands, Japan & China
• Made out of wood /bamboo/glass/ oiled paper panes.

02/05/2023 16
• 19th century- 1st gable-frame greenhouses constructed- melon, grapes
and peaches, strawberries, tomato
• 20th century- constructed large glasshouses in Europe, America, Asia
• Japanese used plastic films cause enormous expansion of GH cultivation

02/05/2023 17
02/05/2023 18
02/05/2023 19
02/05/2023 20
02/05/2023 21
What is a greenhouse/glass house/net
house/polytunnels?

• A structure that provides plants with optimally controlled

environment for adjustment of climate growth condition, to reduce
cost of production and to increase yield

02/05/2023 22
 Objectives of protected agriculture
• Maximizing yield and optimization of product quality
• Increase yield, improve product quality and preserve resources
• Stabilize the supply of high quality products to horticultural markets
• Extended area of production and growing cycles
• contributing to better use of resource ( water, fertilizer, nutrients etc..)
• Protect crops from adverse temperatures
• Decrease effects of wind velocity, hail and snow
• Limit the impact of arid and desert climates
• Decrease damages caused by pests, diseases, nematodes, weeds, birds
and other predators
02/05/2023 23
02/05/2023 24
02/05/2023 25
Environmental variables to be considered in greenhouse
• Temperature (air/soil/growing medium)
• Relative humidity
• Light levels (intensity and quality)
• CO2 concentration levels
• Plant nutrients
• Water/irrigation

Biotic stresses
How could you control these variables?
02/05/2023 26
 Types of Protected cultivation

• Wind breaks
• Mulches
• Low tunnels
• Direct covers
• High tunnels
• Greenhouses

02/05/2023 27
 Wind breaks

02/05/2023 28
 Mulches
02/05/2023 29
 Direct cover
02/05/2023 30
02/05/2023 Low tunnels 31
High tunnels

02/05/2023 32
 Greenhouses
02/05/2023 33
 Advantages and limitations
• Year-round production of crops
• Produce high quality & healthy agricultural produces
• Increase productivity per unit land area
• Minimize the adverse climatic condition for crops
• Multiple cropping in the same peace of land is possible
• Off-season crop production is possible
• Crop production is possible in marginal lands and high altitudes/
deserts
• Can incorporate hydroponics, aerophonics etc systems with GH
• managing pest & diseases relative easier.
02/05/2023 34
 Limitations
• High Initial cost for green house structures
• Lack of tools and machineries
• Shortage of trained employees
• Expensive, short life and non- availability of GH materials

02/05/2023 35
 Summary

02/05/2023 36
Extra knowledge
• https://www.hortidaily.com/article/9057219/world-greenhouse-
vegetable-statistics-updated-for-2019/

02/05/2023 37