The National Research and Development Center for Sustainable Agriculture (Estidamah) organized its first Open day on modern protected cultivation technologies in its office located in the Riyadh Techno Valley, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The Open day was inaugurated with a detailed presentation on Estidamah, stressing the Center’s objectives, including – but not limited to – enhancing water use efficiency, increasing production and reducing the use of pesticides. As well, the Open day elaborated on three levels of greenhouse technologies, ranging from standard low-tech plastic and fan greenhouse, a more advanced med-tech glass pad and fan greenhouse and a fully closed and air-conditioned high-tech greenhouse.
Also, the Open day addressed climate control, fertigation and the impact of light transmissivity on production. Based on an experiment conducted in Estidamah on cucumber cultivation under three different greenhouse covering materials – namely clear glass, diffuse glass and polycarbonate, it was shown that the more light a greenhouse receives, the more production it gives. Hence, a glass greenhouse where the cover is cleaned frequently gives the highest production even under high temperature and radiation in the summer period.
The Open day was attended by 40 participants from different backgrounds, who expressed their interest in and showed great interaction with the topics discussed and the facts presented. Also, the audience had field tours through Estidamah’s greenhouses where they had first-hand knowledge and training on the new technologies introduced by the Center.
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