Explorative study for assessment of greenhouse cultivation problems in Kerala

A survey was conducted across 14 districts of Kerala based on structured questionnaire with an objective of performance of greenhouses maintained by Kerala farmers. Using stratified random sampling 11 farmers were selected randomly from each district and collected the details regarding the problems of greenhouse cultivation, cleaning interval of cladding material, variation of yield with increasing age of cladding material, cost required for cleaning etc. by personal interview method. Details were analyzed using spss 16.0 software.Failure of greenhouses in Kerala is due to aging of cladding material (44.16%), both aging of cladding material and decrease of soilfertility (28.57%), both aging of cladding material and fungal/insect attack (12.34%), aging of cladding material and maintenance problems (9.74%), both aging of cladding material and structural problems like shape, apron length (3.25%). Remedial measures to improve the crop performance inside the greenhouse are intermittent cleaning of cladding material to reduce aging effect of cladding sheet, adopt soil management practices like soil fumigation to improve the soil fertility inside the greenhouse, along with rectifying structural problems design elements have to modify.