Constraints faced by farmers in adoption of polyhouse technology

The ultimate success of improved agricultural technology is measured by the stability in production unaffected by the vagaries of season, or biotic and abiotic stresses. Indian agriculture is still heavily monsoon dependent and has to reach the level of stability required for continued growth. Thus, greenhouses cultivation could serve as a viable solution, facilitating off season cultivation and protecting crop from unfavorable outdoor conditions. But farmers are facing different constraints while adopting greenhouse technologies. Therefore, present study was conducted on 70 farmers of District Patiala to delineate the constraints in adoption of polyhouse. The farmers faced environmental, technical, labour, economic and marketing constraints in harnessing profitability and sustainability of this technology. The major constraints in rapid adoption were high initial investment, population explosion of minute insects like mites & white flies, especially the white fly menace, poor quality of cladding material, frequent occurrence of windstorms, hailstorms, lack of cold storage facilities in villages, high cost and problem of nematode infestation, poor availability of quality planting material and inputs, poor post-harvest infrastructure and absence of price policy measures.