An Economic Analysis of Tunnel Farming in Enhancing Productivity of Off-Season Vegetables in District Peshawar

There has been an increasing trend of growing off-season vegetables in order to get best prices for the agricultural products and also provide food throughout the year. Growing vegetables in tunnel have been adopted by many farmers. However, growing off-season vegetables in tunnels entails added efforts and cost. Through this research study the economic analysis of Tunnel farming of off-season vegetables has been done for district Peshawar. Primary data was collected from eighty-four farmers who had grown off-season vegetables through tunnel-farming, and seasonal vegetables without tunnel and their productivity were compared. It was found that output per acre in tunnel was significantly higher than that of without tunnel. All the three vegetables viz tomato, cucumber and bottle gourd gave higher revenue, however tomato gave the highest return. Growing vegetables through tunnel farming involve higher cost in the shape of structure installation and inputs. Tunnel-farming is scientific farming and the growers need to be properly educated and trained. Establishing of cold storage facilities will greatly help farmers to fetch higher income. Additionally, credit facilities to the farmers would help potential progressive growers to adopt tunnel-farming and grow off-season vegetables, thus getting higher yield per acre.