Greenhouse farming is bringing about a change in the lives of farmers in the high altitude areas of the Chitral district (Pakistan), where normal growing season is limited to only two months due to extreme weather conditions.
Rahmat Gul, a farmer in Nogh Pheti area of Garam Chashma valley, who has set up a solar greenhouse, told Dawn that he earned handsome cash by selling the vegetables.
“For the last two years, I did not go to other parts of the country to work there as labourer in construction industry as I am earning enough to support my family and afford the expenses of my son studying in a college by selling the vegetables in the market,” said Mr Gul.
He said the whole arrangement consisted of a 35-by-16-foot room covered by glass sheets on the sides facing the sun, and plastic sheets on the other with a plastic-coated wooden door on one side and a thick wall to the opposite to trap the heat radiated by sunrays during daytime.