干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The temperate and cold region of the Jammu and Kashmir state are devoid of any vegetation greenery in winter because of low temperature (-5 degrees C to -10 degrees C) in Kashmir Valley and extremely low temperature (-30 degrees C) in cold arid region of Ladakh. Hence, the use of a greenhouse has potential for production of quality horticultural crops during the severe cold climate. An extensive survey was conducted to know the present status and future prospects of greenhouses in Kashmir and Ladakh region. The survey revealed that both the regions have 10,558 different types of greenhouses covering 58.37 hectare out of which 3,327 were in the Kashmir valley and 7,231 in the Ladakh area covering 19.44 hectare and 38.92 hectare, respectively. It was observed that in the Kashmir valley the maximum temperature inside the greenhouse was 10 to 20 degrees C higher than in the open field and 1.94 to 6.54 degrees C difference in minimum temperature. However, the Ladakh region had a conventional design for polyhouse locally known as ’Ladakhi Polyhouse’, which increased the temperature up to 20 C higher than the ambient outside temperature. Outcome of the study suggested that, during winter, a walk-in tunnel polyhouse could be best utilized for production of leafy vegetables in the Kashmir Valley and trench and Ladakhi polyhouse could be efficiently used in the Ladakh region.