Protected cultivation of tomato, capsicum and cucumber under kashmir valley conditions

India is the second largest producer of vegetable crops in the world. However, its vegetable production is much less than the requirement if balanced diet is provided to every individual. There are different ways and means to achieve this target, e.g., bringing additional area under vegetable crops using hybrid seeds, use of improved agro-techniques. Another potential approach is perfection and promotion of protected cultivation of vegetables. In hilly areas parts of the country especially in Northern plains the soils are highly fertile but extremes of temperature ranging from 0 - 48OC during the year do not allow year round outdoor vegetable cultivation. Similarly, in several parts of the country biotic stresses mainly during rainy & post rainy season do not allow successful production of vegetables like tomato, chilli, okra, cauliflower etc in the fields. In upper reaches of Himalayas, cool desert conditions period where the temperature is extremely low (-5to -300C) during winter season and most of the region remain cut off from rest of the country from November to March due to very heavy snowfall therefore it is very difficult to grow vegetables in such climate. In many European Countries, USA, Japan, China, Israel, Morocco, Turkey etc where climate reduces the choices for year round outdoor production, vegetables are being produced in protected environments. Greenhouses being the most efficient means to overcome climatic diversity. Greenhouse vegetable production make the use of recent advances in technology to control the environment for maximizing crop productivity percent area and increasing the quality of vegetables produce. India has entered into the area of greenhouse vegetables cultivation more recently and the total area under protected vegetable production is not more than 10,000 hectares. India being a vast country with diverse and extreme agro-climatic conditions, the protected vegetables cultivation technology can be utilized for year round and off-season production of high value, low volume vegetables, crops production of virus free quality seedlings, quality hybrid seed production and as a tool for disease resistance breeding programes.