Feasibility of tomato and sweet pepper growing in soilless media in Argentina

Soilless culture as a new technology for greenhouse vegetable production in Argentina can potentially reduce cost and improve market share. The southern area of Buenos Aires is an excellent region for growing most of the horticultural crops required by the Northern Hemisphere markets. Commercially few growers are producing tomatoes, peppers and flowers using hydroponics in greenhouses. The lack of economics studies, is a limiting factor for spreading the soilless culture to a large number of growers. To satisfy the increasing consumers' demand for high quality products it is required to use high technology practices such as protected cropping and hydroponics. The objective of this study was to evaluate tomato and sweet pepper growing in soilless culture in Argentina and to improve the growers's investment decisions. The feasibility and economic advantages of growing tomato and sweet pepper in Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) are discussed. Economic indicators such as Net Present Value and Internal Return Rate indicate that sweet pepper production is economically more attractive than tomato production.