Protected cultivation  (with its various methods) is one of the modern  technologies in  agricultural production, (like other technologies), it has several advantages.  In this technology  production has been increased to high levels and now it is in the reach of all people because of the continuous development in this field.  But on the other hand, it has disadvantages limited expanding it horizontally or vertically, and knowing these negatives will provide the product with a package of data through which effective solutions to these obstacles can be developed. Among the advantages of protected agriculture are the following:

*Increasing production: Protected agriculture is one of the intensive farming methods that gives a noticeable increase in crop production, and this is due to the possibility of controlling the environmental conditions necessary for plant growth (heat, humidity, ventilation, nutrition, etc.), and thus it is possible to grow more plants per unit area compared to Open farming.

Reducing the exposure of the crop to risks: the presence of the crop in a closed space prevents it from being damaged by changes in weather conditions such as a sudden increase or decrease in temperature, in addition to protecting crops from birds and other animals.

Increasing profits: the profits per unit area are two or three times greater when implementing protected agriculture as an alternative to farming in open fields, and these profits can be increased when other strategies are introduced (hydroponic farming as an example) where waste is less.

It provides stability in production because it does not depend on fluctuating climatic conditions, that is, there is stability in production and therefore safety, and this in turn leads to stability and security of workers in this sector.

Avoiding bush damage and easy control of agricultural pests: Well-designed and ideally built protected facilities can prevent the occurrence of pest and harmful bush problems with high efficiency, and the closed space can be limited to working staff only, thus reducing the number of people entering and leaving who can transfer infection of unwanted diseases and pests to the greenhouse.

The ability to produce crops outside their natural season: Protected agriculture is relatively independent from the outside world that allows the cultivation and production of crops at any time in harsh winters and extremely hot summers.

Preserving the environment: by reducing the waste of water and fertilizers and limiting the use of chemical pesticides.

Raising the efficiency of water use: Protected agriculture consumes (60-70%) of the amount of water consumed by open farming for the same crop, conditions and unit area, where drip irrigation is carried out, which results in a reduction in the amount of water used.

Obtaining a clean yield: Agriculture within the protected environment yields clean fruits with high quality specifications as they grow in isolation from external environmental conditions such as dust, insects and bright sunlight.

Disadvantages of protected cultivation:

You need a large initial capital to provide the basic means of production: the structures of the houses and heating devices are expensive, which may pose a challenge to many farmers and reduce the demand for protected agriculture.

- You need careful design: The design and engineering of greenhouses must take into account the very precise technical details, such as the location and type of the crop to be planted, and that any defect in it negatively affects the expected results.

- High costs of periodic production: The operational costs of protected agriculture (fuel, seeds, plastic covers, etc.) are much higher than the costs of farming in open fields, and this poses a challenge to the spread of protected agriculture.

- Requires a high level of technical skills: The nature of work inside greenhouses requires the provision of skilled workers who have high technical experience to deal with these facilities and are able to control all environmental variables and solve any problem that occurs immediately, unlike working in open cultivation.

- The protected environment provides ideal conditions for diseases: Providing ideal conditions for production inside greenhouses provides the best conditions for diseases at the same time, and this constitutes a major challenge to the production process in the protected environment.

- The need for a stable and stable marketing process: Protected agriculture requires an effective marketing process for the crop, especially since the life of these fruits is very short and needs to be marketed quickly to ensure maintaining the quality of the fruits produced, and the more time the product spends in storage, the greater the value it will lose, and this requires a strong business partner and market, which poses a challenge to many in this field.

- Shortening the production season: the production season in unheated protected agriculture (which is prevalent in Iraq) is limited to a few months starting from November to April, which constitutes a real challenge to meet the high production costs and to prolong the production season, refrigeration must be used in the high temperature season. This increases production costs significantly.

According to above, it can be said that protected agriculture is a double-edged sword, as it doubles production and improves its quality, but this method is not without challenges that may constitute an obstacle to the spread of this method of production and reduce the areas occupied by protected agriculture on the other hand.