Normally, production of greenhouse cucumbers requires more labour than that of peppers and maybe tomatoes, as most cucumber growers manage three crops in a year compared with growers having only one crop for peppers and one or two for tomatoes. The total annual harvests, measured in either the number of fruits or weights, are much higher with cucumbers. Facing increased production challenges, such as high-priced fuel and competition from foreign producers, it appears that improving labour working efficiency could be a more important issue with cucumber production than with production of other major greenhouse vegetables. We have investigated which operation or activity in greenhouse cucumber production has significant influence on labour consumption, and the possibility to improve working efficiency for that specific activity.
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