Greenhouse agriculture, a way forward for Sri Lanka: Stakeholders

Dr. Lasantha Malavige and Prasad Senadheera 
PIC BY PRADEEP PATHIRANA

• Express confidence in transforming SL’s agriculture value chain through adaptation of greenhouse technologies
• Assert improved efforts needed to increase SL’s mere 100-200 hectares of greenhouses to 1000 in five years

• By Chamindra Wickramasinghe 

Against a backdrop of exorbitant vegetable prices and climate vulnerabilities affecting the crops cultivated in Sri Lanka’s open-fields, greenhouse agriculture is viewed as a way forward for a more sustainable agricultural landscape. 
The stakeholders say their endorsement of enclosed or greenhouse cultivation is identifying as a solution to the current unrealistic and unaffordable prices of fresh produce that partly keep 24 percent of the country’s population undernourished. 

“Our cost of production at the Divulapitiya greenhouse facility is much lower than open-field cultivation. Our aim is to bring down fruit and vegetable prices at least by 50 percent over the next two years and increase farmer profitability through greenhouse agriculture,” Lassana Group Chairman Dr. Lasantha Malavige said.

He shared his views at an event hosted to announce the partnership between Lassana Agi Innovation and India’s Agriplast Protected Cultivation, a move that will strengthen the country’s greenhouse infrastructure that is still in its infancy. 

Since transforming the agriculture value chain is possible through adaptation of greenhouse technologies, Dr. Malavige added that the country needs more advanced solutions to be competitive globally, and to bring down these prices of fresh produce, to make it scalable.
As opposed to open-field crops’ unknown origin, compromised quality, wastage due to squashed, damaged or unhygienic produce, the year-round supply in greenhouses is said to be meticulously handled. 

“What we harvest in the morning is taken into a controlled atmosphere in the packhouse, then sorted, packed and transferred into the cool room and we deliver it to the fulfilment centre on the same day, so that the produce can be sent to the consumer within the shortest possible time, to ensure freshness,” Lassana Agri Innovation CEO Prasad Senadheera said.
Besides, there is no necessity to grow crops in the highlands alone any longer, for instance high-quality lettuce, when they can be produced closer to the market or Colombo in greenhouses. 

When 98 percent of Sri Lanka’s fresh fruit and vegetable crop being in open-fields while their vulnerability to changing weather patterns is palpable – the wet zone getting wetter, with more rains and the dry zone experiencing extended dry spells and Climate Risk Index 2021 placing the country as the 13th most vulnerable nation in the world, climate-resilient greenhouses are shown as an alternative for the arable farmer.   

In the enclosed greenhouse, the plant receives optimum condition – be it light, temperature, humidity, ventilation and nutrition, at the right time and level; thus, the system is capable of stabilising the supply chain.
Denying that modern technology is expensive but modern agriculture makes cost of production significantly lower, Dr. Malavige emphasised the need to increase Sri Lanka’s mere 100-200 hectares of greenhouses to 1000, in five years, without lagging far behind the world’s mature greenhouse industry that records a compound annual growth rate of 9 percent.