The document outlines best practices for commercial greenhouse construction, emphasizing long-term planning, quality construction, and efficient technology use to optimize operations. It highlights the significance of organisms effectively like contingency budgeting and project management to ensure successful greenhouse establishment. Additionally, it discusses the emergence and benefits of greenhouse technology in India, which aims to enhance agricultural productivity and profitability by creating controlled environments for plant growth.

1. Green House Technology
Dr. Naveen Gaurav
Associate Professor and Head
Department of Biotechnology
Shri Guru Ram Rai University
Dehradun

2. Best Practices for Commercial Greenhouse Construction Projects (Green house
technology)
Whether you are building a single hoop house or building a ten hectare greenhouse range,
new greenhouse construction is part of building your growing business. For many growers
the construction process is exciting full of anticipation as you watch your dreams becoming
a reality.. Here are the GGS greenhouse growers’ best practices:

3. Planning for long term goals first
Very few greenhouse construction projects are built to cover the entire property in one
build. In most cases, finances, time, and current market demands are not in place at the
beginning for the size you want to become. So by looking at your greenhouse business’
future goals you can avoid some costly layout mistakes, and increase the efficient scalability
of your greenhouse. A well-planned layout for structures and greenhouse equipment
should include mapping out workflow for the various functions of your operation. Consider
in the future how you will automate, streamline, and adapt to your growing business.
Hiring experienced people
Typically we see three types of greenhouse construction projects:
Do it yourself builders are either smaller growers who have their hands in all aspects of
their business, and work closely with a dedicated team of employees who work in many
cross functional areas of the business; or they are larger greenhouse operators who build
frequently and have experienced builders and maintenance people on their payroll.
1.Greenhouse owners who do their own project management but hire a professional
greenhouse construction company, and other expert crews for installing the greenhouse
structure, heating, irrigation systems, etc.
2. Growers who prefer to focus their energy on their business operations and hire
greenhouse construction turnkey project managers to organize the greenhouse
construction and all the integrated systems.

4. Providing for contingencies in the
construction budget
Whether you are going to the bank for a
loan, or building the greenhouse range
out of cash flow, defining the capital
expenses and ongoing operating costs is
a necessary element for success. But no
matter how good your planning is, on
construction projects there are often
surprise issues. A contingency in the
budget helps reduce your stress and that
of your bank.
Building extra time into your
construction schedule
Just as with unforeseen expenses, timing
on a construction project can go astray.
Perhaps, there is constant rain that
makes the construction site muddy and
slows the crews down, or the employee
in charge of the build resigns. Building in
time for every possibility is of course not
possible, but where it makes sense add
extra time to the critical path.

5. Focusing on quality every step of the way
Your greenhouse structure and the environmental controls and growing systems inside the
greenhouse are long term investments that will yield long term dividends. Starting with
quality puts your operation on the right path from the start, and allows you to focus your
energies on growing your best crop.
New construction decisions include efficient technology
When you are buying quality products for your long term growing success it makes sense to
buy products and systems that will maximize operational efficiencies. This list includes:
1. High efficiency boilers and unit heaters to reduce energy costs.
2. Picking carts, robots, and other material handling systems
3. Environmental computers to automate ventilation, temperature, irrigation, etc.
4. More efficient grow lights to reduce electric consumption
5. Rolling benches
Be purposeful in changing anything from what you are familiar with in the greenhouse
Because the complete greenhouse environment requires interdependence between light
levels, air flow, temperature, humidity, irrigation, etc., changes in how you have grown in
the past need to be done with intentional consideration to the total greenhouse
environment.

6. Use a greenhouse manufacturer who
understands how you want to build
and has the experience to provide
the level of construction assistance
that you need. For do it yourself
projects, a clear set of construction
blueprints and a sales/service
department who can answer
questions during construction are
what you need. On the other end of
the spectrum for turnkey greenhouse
management you need a greenhouse
manufacturer with experience in
project management as well as the
various facets of greenhouse systems
design and installation.
Getting organized from the start with a kickoff meeting
Make sure there is a kickoff meeting to clearly define the different systems that will need to
work together. Shade, CO2, irrigation, fertigation, ventilation, heating all need to work
together to provide the ideal crop environment in your greenhouse. By making sure
everyone on your supply side is aware of the total package you gain more expertise to make
sure that the systems work as planned. Greenhouse construction projects that start with
suppliers and installers working together have a higher satisfaction rate.

7. Keep track of progress as the greenhouse is
built
Know the milestones you want to hit, and visit
the construction site often checking that you
are reaching those milestones, and dealing
with any variations as they occur. A good
greenhouse construction project manager will
have a GANTT chart outlining the start and
end times for all the elements that are going
into your greenhouse build. If you are
managing your own project, this is an easy
way of tracking multiple trades. By staying on
top of the progress you help keep the project
on course, and can rectify minor difficulties
before they become major issues.
Growing a successful greenhouse business
involves much more than just growing the
crop. Greenhouse expansion planning and
greenhouse improvements help growers
improve efficiencies, take advantage of market
opportunities, and provide for employee
growth. At GGS we are proud to be a part of
your growing success.

8. Low Cost Green Houses for Vegetable Production
Agriculture is the backbone of India’s economic activity and our experience during the last
50 years has demonstrated the strong correlation between agricultural growth and
economic prosperity. The present agricultural scenario is a mix of outstanding achievements
and missed opportunities. If India has to emerge as an economic power in the world, our
agricultural productivity should equal those countries, which are currently rated as
economic power of the world. We need a new and effective technology which can improve
continuously the productivity, profitability, sustainability of our major farming systems. One
such technology is the green house technology. Although it is centuries old, it is new to India
Greenhouse Technology: Growing plants is both an art and a science. About 95% of plants,
either food crops or cash crops are grown in open field. Since time immemorial, man has
learnt how to grow plants under natural environmental conditions. In some of the
temperate regions where the climatic conditions are extremely adverse and no crops can be
grown, man has developed methods of growing some high value crop continuously by
providing protection from the excessive cold, which is called as Greenhouse Technology. So,
Greenhouse Technology is the technique of providing favourable environment condition to
the plants. It is rather used to protect the plants from the adverse climatic conditions such
as wind, cold, precepitation, excessive radiation, extreme temperature, insects and diseases.
It is also of vital importance to create an ideal micro climate around the plants. This is
possible by erecting a greenhouse / glass house, where the environmental conditions are so
modified that one can grow any plant in any place at any time by providing suitable
environmental conditions with minimum labour.

9. Greenhouses are framed or inflated structures covered with transparent or translucent
material large enough to grow crops under partial or fully controlled environmental
conditions to get optimum growth and productivity.
Advantages of greenhouses :
♥ The yield may be 10-12 times higher than that of out door cultivation depending
upon the type of greenhouse, type of crop, environmental control facilities.
♥ Reliability of crop increases under greenhouse cultivation.
♥ Ideally suited for vegetables and flower crops.
♥ Year round production of floricultural crops.
♥ Off-season production of vegetable and fruit crops.
♥ Disease-free and genetically superior transplants can be produced continuously.
♥ Efficient utilisation of chemicals, pesticides to control pest and diseases.
♥ Water requirement of crops very limited and easy to control.
♥ Maintenance of stock plants, cultivating grafted plant-lets and micro propagated
plant-lets.
♥ Hardening of tissue cultured plants
♥ Production of quality produce free of blemishes.
♥ Most useful in monitoring and controlling the instability of various ecological system.
♥ Modern techniques of Hydroponic (Soil less culture), Aeroponics and Nutrient film
techniques are possible only under greenhouse cultivation

10. Status in India
While greenhouses have existed for more than one and a half centuries in various parts of
the world, in India use of greenhouse technology started only during 1980’s and it was
mainly used for research activities. This may be because of our emphasis, so far had been
on achieving self-sufficiency in food grain production. However, in recent years in view of
the globalization of international market and tremendous boost and fillip that is being
given for export of agricultural produce, there has been a spurt in the demand for
greenhouse technology. The National Committee on the use of Plastics in Agriculture
(NCPA-1982) has recommended location specific trials of greenhouse technology for
adoption in various regions of the country.
Greenhouses are being built in the Ladakh region for extending the growing season of
vegetables from 3 to 8 months. In the North-East, greenhouses are being constructed
essentially as rain shelters to permit off-season vegetable production. In the Northern
plains, seedlings of vegetables and flowers are being raised in the greenhouses either for
capturing the early markets or to improve the quality of the seedlings. Propagation of
difficult-to-root tree species has also been found to be very encouraging. Several
commercial floriculture ventures are coming up in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka
states to meet the demands of both domestic and export markets.

11. The commercial utilization of greenhouses started from 1988 onwards and now with the
introduction of Government’s liberalization policies and developmental initiatives, several
corporate houses have entered to set up 100% export oriented units. In just four years,
since implementation of the new policies in 1991, 103 projects with foreign investment of
more than Rs.80 crores have been approved to be set up in the country at an estimated
cost of more than Rs.1000 crores around Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi. Thus the
area under climatically controlled greenhouses of these projects is estimated to be
around 300 ha. Out of which many have already commenced exports and have received
very encouraging results in terms of the acceptance of the quality in major markets
abroad and the price obtained.

12. Thank you
References: Online notes, notes from research papers and Books by google search Engine