INTRODUCTION India is the second largest vegetables producer in the world next to China; however it’s per capita per day availability is well below 92 g whereas the recommended consumption is 284 g. The present production is not sufficient to meet the requirement. The target can be achieved by bringing additional area under vegetable crops, using hybrid seeds, improved agro techniques and perfection and promotion of protected cultivation of vegetables (Singh and Vashist, 1999). Protected cultivation technologies are being utilized all over the world but the level and extent of their use may be different among different countries. Of late the farmers of India are realizing the importance of protected cultivation of vegetable crops. In protected cultivation the crops are protected from excessive sunlight by providing uniform shade that results in better yield. These structures will also act as a barrier against heavy rains, hail-storms and other natural calamities, provides protection against insects, birds and helps in reducing the loss of water through evaporation. The structures are ideally suits to horticulture and floriculture crops. The production of off-season vegetable crops under net house conditions was evaluated for total yield, earliness and other character and incidence of insect pests (Cheema et al., 2004). The cultivation of vegetables in net house can play a better role in improving quality, advancing maturity as well as increasing fruiting span and productivity. Singh and Asrey (2005) studied the performance of tomato and sweet pepper under unheated green house. The production of tomato and sweet pepper under medium cost green house was found top the tune of 93.2 and 76.4 t/ ha, respectively. It was of excellent quality as compared to outside where the crop could not survive due to prevailing low temperature. Among the three cultivars of tomato, Neveen (93.2 t/ha) out yielded the other cultivars Avinash-II (71.2 t/ ha) and Akash (73.7 t/ha). Thus, the studies have indicated that cultivation of tomato and sweet Abstract : The performance of capsicum crop in open field and under covered cultivation was evaluated at Precision Farming Development Centre experimental field at Bhopal during December, 2011 to May, 2012. Under covered cultivation, black colour shade net having 50% shade factor was used in the study. Same crop cultural practices in the open field and under covered cultivation were adopted for comparison. Drip irrigation system was adopted in both the cases and irrigation system parameters such as frequency of irrigation and wetting pattern were collected. Other parameters such as soil temperature, duration of the crop, morphological parameters of the crop and yield were monitored. The study revealed that under shade net the crop yield was increased by 80 per cent over open field cultivation along with water saving of about 40 per cent in covered cultivation. The wetting pattern from the emitting device of 2 lph indicated maximum spread of 40 cm from emitter in case of crop under covered cultivation where as in open field the spread was 25 cm. Duration of the crop was also extended by 40 more days under covered cultivation. Key Words : Open field, Covered cultivation, Shade net, Shade factor, Micro irrigation system, Capsicum crop View Point Article : Ramana Rao, K.V., Agrawal, Vijay, Chourasia, Lavesh, Keshri, Ravish and Patel, G.P. (2013). Performance evaluation of capsicum crop in open field and under covered cultivation. Internat. J. agric. Sci., 9(2): 602-604. Article History : Received : 21.06.2012; Revised : 08.03.2013; Accepted : 08.04.2013 Performance evaluation of capsicum crop in open field and under covered cultivation K.V. RAMANA RAO*, VIJAY AGRAWAL, LAVESH CHOURASIA, RAVISH KESHRI AND G.P. PATEL Precision Farming Development Centre,Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, BHOPAL (M.P.) INDIA (Email : kvramanarao@yahoo.com) International Journal of Agricultural Sciences Volume 9 | Issue 2| June, 2013 | 602-604 RESEARCH PAPER * Author for correspondence