Protected hi-tech farming is gaining huge popularity in our area nowadays. Farmers like this mainly because they are weather proof and there is no headache from pests. Vegetables are grown in a protected environment like a house and there is hi-tech facility for irrigation and fertilization. It uses drip irrigation for watering plants and also for giving water soluble fertilizer through drip irrigation tubes. This ensures optimum utilization of water and fertilizer. Farmers are getting very good output through this method and they are also chemical free as they do not use any pesticides. So they save money on pesticides, water and fertilizer. After an initial investment for setting up the project it is really profitable. Is hi-tech farming popular in your area?
My dream is to have a green house of my own. It would be much fun for me to see my plants grow without the need for checking on pests. I also want a big green house for my mango tree so the flowers will not be ruined when it rains. The flowers now (January 2017) have been ravaged by the unexpected rains and from my estimate, we have lost more than half of the anticipated fruits. With vegetables, they usually suffer excess water since my extended garden is in a low lying area. With a green house, a moat can be constructed to prevent floodwater to come in.
Really appreciate your interest in farming. But I think protect farming is successful in self pollinating vegetable plants like cucumber, tomato etc and I am not sure whether it will work out for mango trees. Otherwise we need to find out a way for other artificial pollination methods. You are right that mango plants are one of the worst hit fruit plants by climatic changes and pests. In fact the loss is quite huge due to pest attack too. We lose a major part of blooms due to pest attack and using a chemical fertilizer aggravate the issue. Unexpected climatic changes add fuel to fire.
