Al-Khateeb, S.A.; Zeineldin, F.I.; Elmulthum, N.A.; Al-Barrak, K.M.; Sattar, M.N.; Mohammad, T.A.; Mohmand, A.S. Assessment of Water Productivity and Economic Viability of Greenhouse-Grown Tomatoes under Soilless and Soil-Based Cultivations. Water2024, 16, 987.
Al-Khateeb, S.A.; Zeineldin, F.I.; Elmulthum, N.A.; Al-Barrak, K.M.; Sattar, M.N.; Mohammad, T.A.; Mohmand, A.S. Assessment of Water Productivity and Economic Viability of Greenhouse-Grown Tomatoes under Soilless and Soil-Based Cultivations. Water 2024, 16, 987.
Al-Khateeb, S.A.; Zeineldin, F.I.; Elmulthum, N.A.; Al-Barrak, K.M.; Sattar, M.N.; Mohammad, T.A.; Mohmand, A.S. Assessment of Water Productivity and Economic Viability of Greenhouse-Grown Tomatoes under Soilless and Soil-Based Cultivations. Water2024, 16, 987.
Al-Khateeb, S.A.; Zeineldin, F.I.; Elmulthum, N.A.; Al-Barrak, K.M.; Sattar, M.N.; Mohammad, T.A.; Mohmand, A.S. Assessment of Water Productivity and Economic Viability of Greenhouse-Grown Tomatoes under Soilless and Soil-Based Cultivations. Water 2024, 16, 987.
Abstract
Water scarcity challenges have necessitated the adoption of water-saving techniques in protected and nom-protected farming. This study aimed to assess the performance of a water-saving soil-less cultivation technique and to compare it with conventional soil-based cultivation in protected farming. The soilless technique used local gravel and a mixture of peat-moss, humin-substrate, and perlite in ratios of 4:3:1.5. Three irrigation regimes were imposed using emitters 8Lh-1 design discharge (D1) emitters with 6Lh-1 design discharge (D0.75) and 4Lh-1 de-sign discharge (D0.5) for the two cultivation methods during the growth cycle of tomato by drip irrigation. The vegetative growth, fruit yield and water consumption were measured and water productivity was determined. Moreover, an economic assessment was carried out by estimating and comparing economic coefficients for the two cultivation methods. Estimated coefficients include revenues, net profit, benefit-cost ratio, break-even levels of production and prices, revenues over variable cost, and revenues on investment. The tomato fruit yield under soil-based cultivation overtopped the yield under soilless cultivation. The water productivity under the soilless cultivation was almost twice that (24.3 kg m-3) of the soil-based cultivation (15.5 kg m-3). The soilless cultivation saved 50% of irrigation water applied by the conventional soil-based method, saving energy and soil from deterioration. Revenues and net profits stimulated by higher yield coupled with lower variable cos supported the soil-based cultivation. The economic assessment showed that both cultivation methods were economically viable. However, the soil-based cultivation method was more profitable due to its higher fruit yield. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the soilless cultivation technique is a viable option for wa-ter-saving cultivation. However, the soil-based cultivation method is still more profitable due to its higher fruit yield
Keywords
low-tech greenhouse; tomato; soilless cultivation; soil-based cultivation; water productivity
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Water Science and Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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