Factors Affecting the Performance of Greenhouse Cucumber Cultivation-A Review

Although, protective cultivation (in soil or soilless media) offers a favorable environment for crop growth, development and consequently, results in higher productivity. However, numerous factors viz. temperature, relative humidity, radiation, evapotranspiration (crop water requirement) vapour pressure deficit, plant stomatal conductance, irrigation, fertigation, disease incidence, leaf wetness duration, electricity cost, diesel fuel cost and labor cost affect the greenhouse cucumber production to a significant degree. In addition to the existing cost of protective cultivation, shifting from soil to soilless cultivation due to uncontrollable soil borne diseases has increased the cost of production significantly. Besides, the yield of crops including cucumber has significantly increased by shifting from soil to soilless growing media. Secondly, in developing countries, where the marginal farmers are uninformed and even cannot afford the initial investment, this technology is still a challenge to be adopted. On the other hand, the economic analysis of greenhouse cucumber production in a protective structure becomes important to compare the profitability of production with open field conditions. Overall, the yield and quality of vegetable production in different growing media under protective structures have shown a huge improvement which is not possible under open field conditions. Moreover, protective structures offer off-season cultivation of vegetables when offered with measures for controlling the microclimate. In other terms, to maintain an optimum microclimate inside a protective structure, artificial heating during winter or cooling during summer is required which increases the cost of production. Thus, to support the farmers, the government agencies should come forward to provide sufficient subsidy for installation of protective structures along with sophisticated instruments or the initial cost involved, particularly in the hilly regions where the conditions are favorable. Furthermore, the marginal farmer who cannot afford for sophisticated instruments should be aided with meteorological information from local government authority which may help him to plan the crop or maintain the desired environmental conditions accordingly. In the present study an attempt has been made to review the dynamic factors affecting performance of greenhouse cucumber cultivation