Use of Controlled Environment for Vegetable Production in Desert Regions of the World

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Abstract
Many of the world's desert areas remain uninhabited but could be made productive, even attractive for settlement, if certain necessities were present. One such necessity is food. If crops are to be grown, water for irrigation and an environment conducive to good crop production are needed. Water is not available in most desert regions and must be provided together with the required power to pump this water from wells and into the area of crop production. The daily temperatures in most desert areas are adequate for crop production during most months of the year, but such hazards as sandstorms and insect invasions often make them undesirable for vegetable production; and providing water for irrigation is expensive. Experiments now are being conducted by the Universities of Arizona and Sonora in the growing of vegetables in controlled-environment, air-inflated greenhouses. The experimental unit is located in Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico, on the east coast of the Gulf of California. The following are procedures and results obtained to date from tests which have been in progress since October 1968 (Fig. 1, 2).

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