Padma Nath Atreya1 , Arun Kafle2 , Basant Shrestha3 , Rajendra Jung Rayamajhi4
1 Warm Temperate Horticulture Centre, Kirtipur, Kathmandu
2 Vegetable Crops Development Centre, Khumaltar, Lalitpur
3 Vegetable Superzone, PMAMP, Kaski, Pokhara
4 Horticulture Entrepreneurs, Tandi, Chitwan
Corresponding author’s email: atreyapadma@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper highlighted the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) of precision and protected horticulture development in Nepal and future needs. Precision horticulture and protected horticulture are emerging field of technologies to modernize Nepalese agriculture. Precision horticulture is a holistic system while protected horticulture comes under it. This technology has very good potential especially in urban and peri-urban areas of Nepal for commercial production of horticultural commodities. Population growth, depleting natural resources, and climate change impact on agriculture force to think about modern technologies for horticulture production. Research showed that cultivation under protected structure can increase productivity by 3-5 folds over normal cultivation in high value crops like tomatoes and capsicum. Now days' bamboo plastic house, galvanized iron (GI) tunnels, naturally ventilated greenhouse, hi-tech and semi hi-tech green houses, and net houses have been widely used in Nepalese horticulture for saplings/seedlings production. Lack of area specific technology, less use of information technology along with poor technology development and adoption, weak production and post-production along with improper care and maintenance of structures are considered as major setbacks for its development. Policies and programs for input support, technology development, verification and adoption are the major future needs identified in Nepalese context. Keywords: Precision agriculture, Protected horticulture, Growing structures, SWOT