Antinuclear

The house has climate-controlled retractable roof panels and walls which shield vulnerable crops from volatile and destructive weather, or open them up to sun and rain.

Bundaberg agronomist Jack Millbank said crop protection could now be measured in hectares rather than square metres, with the houses providing glass house type protection at nearly half the price.

“I think this is going to be a watershed in the high-value horticultural market, in that suddenly this is not a cost, it’s a necessary investment,” he said.

The structures were originally for small high-value operations like nurseries, but recent advances made them cheaper, making it feasible for larger-scale growers to cover whole paddocks or orchards.

Mr Millbank said a Cravo house turned around the financial fortunes of one of his big Bundaberg clients who was preparing to quit the region after five years of crop-destroying weather……..

While Queensland producers were the first to use the houses, growers as far south as Tasmania are now putting them up.

Tasmanian orchardist Tim Reid believes he is the first commercial cherry grower in the world to adopt the Canadian system.

The new $2.5 million house will protect four hectares of cherries from frost, hail rain and humidity.

“It could nearly pay for itself in a year, certainly in two years of poor crops we could get our money back, but year on year we are going to get improved pack outs so that’s going to contribute to repaying us every year,” he said.

“It takes the risk out of climate change and it will open the opportunity to produce some new crops in places where they have not been produced before.“I think it will spread everywhere. In time it will be the only way to go in the future(Watch Cravo House on Landline, Sunday at noon on ABCTV.) http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-04/farmers-grow-crops-in-greenhouses-prevent-climate-change-effects/8321720