Samenvatting

India is facing issues with the availability of vegetables and with water quality and availability especially in Maharashtra where the availability of water depends on the season. Drought years can have a severe impact on the agriculture production. The polyhouse can be a solution to increase the production of vegetable while decreasing the use of land and water. In Maharashtra, there are two main types of fertigation systems for soil-less cultivation under crop protection: the high-techautomated irrigation system and the low-tech dosing pump system which is a manual way to fertigate accurately the cultivation. The objectives of this study were to find which one of these systems, dosing pump or automation, is the most adapted to the local context of Maharashtra interms of investment and efficiency. The topic deals with a comparison between two soil-less system, automated irrigation system and dosing pump technology. A simulation of the installation of the two systems was carried out in order to compare costs. The automated system was found more expensive than the dosing pump system, but allowing an automatic control of the EC and pH of the nutrient solution and irrigating a larger area. Automated fertigation is ten times more expensive than dosing pump so it is required for higher productivity high added value vegetable production and large production on monoculture, when dosing pump, less expensive is more adapted to smaller field crops and poly-culture systems. As it is less expensive, it is possible to use more than one pump on the same farm. In order to obtain an inclusive development in agriculture and to limit the risks, it is required to enhance a dynamic of cooperative work between farmers.