To grow tomatoes in off season, Bengal farmers adopt Israeli greenhouse technique

Indian farmers in eastern Siliguri city of West Bengal have adopted Israeli basedgreenhouse technique to grow tomatoes during the rainy season.

The technique which requires warm and fairly dry weather in Israel is helping the farmers of the Siliguri region to crow crops during the rainyseason.

Around 10,000 tomato saplings have been planted with the help of the technique which has resulted in the good quality products and is being sold in other parts of the country.

Technical officer of the district horticulture department Amarindra Pandey said that they took help from Israel greenhouse technology and installed high tech greenhouse as the farmers in the region were not able to produce tomatoes during the off seasons.

"During offseasons, in the months of rains and summers, the farmers are not able to produce tomatoes in the open fields sowe import tomatoes from outside, from Nashik, Bengaluru. So we thought why not let the farmers adopt the same technology in north Bengal that is used (in other countries)." Pandey said.

Greenhouse technology is the process of creating a protected environment for cultivation. The vegetables and fruits grown under such circumstances provide high-quality produce. The Israeli greenhouse technique involves usage of developed computer hardware, software, automated water supply to plants and offers climate control.