Hi,Hi,
Has anyone come up with a low cost greenhouse(checking mostly with individuals) in and around bangalore. Someone who might have tried DIY( do it yourself) mechanism to bring down the costs of infrastructure and make the farmers rich.
Hi,
I am from Bangalore and interested in agriculture. As a prototype project for finding out efficacy of greenhouse cultivation, I have constructed a polyhouse of about 1500 Sqft. This was to learn the nuances of constructing a cost effective green house and also see whether there is a definite improvement in the output.
Regarding construction of the green house, the following is my observations / comments:
1. The polythene is the most expensive part. It costs around Rs. 4 - 5 per sqft. This is a 3 year investment so i would recommend you choose a good quality one. There is a israel company which markets polyhouse material in Bangalore. Would recommend that.
2. The structure can be made out of stone pillars & eucalyptus wood. Each stone cost (which is used for fencing) cost around Rs.50-70. Take stones which are around 6 feet in length and use them as structure in intervals of 8 -10 feet. Even wood can be used for vertical structure support, but the issue is of termites eating away the wood within 3-6 months. I would recommend stone / brick wall of about 6 feet for vertical support.
3. Use wood (eucalyptus / bamboo) for horizontal and slanting structure. It is in similar way a poultry shed is constructed, except you dont have to use so much material. Use wood sparingly. Ensure no sharp edges remain as it may tear the plastic sheet.
4. Ensure the construction you are doing is in east-west direction. In other words, the length of the polyhouse should be in east west direction to avoid high wind hitting the structure.
5. Once you put the plastic on top of the structure (similar to poultry shed), ensure that you tie nylon rope (used for drying clothes) diaognally from one side to another of the structure to secure the plastic on the wood. This is the only cost effective way i can think about, as nailing the plastic sheet will tear it away. The trick is to ensure that plastic does not catch wind which has risk of tearing the plastic.
6. For the sides of the structure (where bricks would put in a house construction), first put the poultry mesh which is around Rs.16-20 per metre. This is required to secure the insect mesh which is is put all across the structure. It is quite simple to fix it. Just use binding wires to secure them.
Once the green house is ready, the next challenge was to see what grows well within the green house. So I did some experiments over 8 months and this is what i have observed.
1. Green house is most effective during the monsoons of bangalore. Because of the rains, most vegetables do not grow or the labour involved to reduce water logging is very high. During Jul-Sep you can grow vegetables like french beans, radish, capsicum, tomatoes, greens like methi, palak, corriander etc. Since you water them yourself and no rain water is used, the vegetables grow very well inside the green house. No excess watering issue is there. During the monsoons, the vegetables fetch a good price in the market as there is lesser produce in the market during that time.
2. One of the biggest benefits of green house is to avoid insects which infect the plants because it has insect mesh. However, as a precaution, i would recommend every week once neem oil spray. As another precaution, just grow marigold on both sides of the greenhouse. This will reduce pest insects within the greenhouse to almost zero.
3. In terms of growth of plants within the greenhouse and outside the greenhouse, i would say it is almost the same. However the quality of the vegetables will be better within the green house. Vegetables grown within the green house will have more water content and hence you can get good weight when the vegetables are sold.
Overall, it will cost you around Rs.8000-10000 for a 2000 sqft greenhouse and you can recover the investment in 3-6 months. If you make the greenhouse bigger then recovery time can become lesser. However, if you use the metal based greenhouse, the recovery time becomes very high. More than 2-3 years.
If you want to stick to one-two vegetable growing, then i would recommend french beans and radish in alternative crops. You can get good output.
If any of you have queries on this further, do let me know. I can reply to you from a practical point of view.
Regards
Dinesh Rao