TY  - BOOK
AU  - Gopika P
AU  - Anu Varughese (Guide)
TI  - Development and performance evaluation of vertical farming structures in rainshelter
U1  - 631.3 
PY  - 2022///
CY  - Tavanur
PB  - Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology
KW  - Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
N1  - MTech
N2  - A study was conducted to develop a vertical farming structure suitable for
rainshelters for homestead cultivation of Kerala and to evaluate the performance of
the developed structure. The newly designed and fabricated Vertical Farming
Structure (VFS I) was compared with two existing structures, viz, VFS II and VFS III. 
Amaranthus of CO-1 variety was selected for the study. Combination of Sand: Soil: 
Cowdung: Vermicompost in the ratio 1: ½: 1: ½ respectively on volume basis was 
selected as the growing media. Irrigation was provided through drip irrigation. The 
performance of the vertical farming structures was compared by assessing the climatic 
parameters (temperature, RH, light intensity and PAR) and biometric observations 
(height and number of branches) and yield. Maximum temperature (37.28°C) was 
recorded during 1:00 PM and lower temperature (24.1°C) was recorded during early 
morning hours. Higher relative humidity (98.9%) was recorded during early morning 
hours and lower relative humidity (50.59%) was recorded during afternoon hours. 
Light intensity and PAR were maximum in VFS I (49000 lux and 1032 µmol m-2 s-1) 
followed by VFS II and VFS III respectively. Statistical analysis was done by twoway Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with replications using SPSS 16.0. The results 
from statistical analysis showed that the light intensity and PAR at 8:00 AM, 1:00 PM 
and yield per plant showed a significant difference between the structures and tiers 
individually and also in combination at 5% level of significance. Light intensity and 
PAR at 5:00 PM, height and number of branches significantly varied between structure 
and tier individually. Maximum B-C ratio of 1.33 was obtained for VFS I, followed 
by 1.19 and 1.13 for VFS II and VFS III respectively. The positive values of NPW in 
all the three cases indicated that the project is viable. The overall results of the study
revealed that the VFS I showed better performance in all aspects compared to VFS II
and VFS III. The study recommended rainshelter cultivation of vegetables with 
facility for utilising vertical space using the vertical farming structure and drip 
irrigation. The developed structure is suitable for increasing the production from the 
homesteads of Kerala
ER  -