Agricultural film | materials feature


Agricultural film: looking towards a green future


Speakers at the recent Agricultural Film conference, organised by Applied Market Information, covered a wide range of topics, ranging from biodegradable products to the varied applications of plastic film. For a country like India – a major producer of both fruit and vegetables – agricultural films offer the chance to boost yields while preserving resources such as water. “India ranks second worldwide in farm output,” said


Narottam Chavada, head of the plasticulture develop- ment centre at Reliance Industries. However, he noted that productivity is around 16m


tonnes per hectare – around half that of countries such as the US, Japan and Egypt. “There is a huge possibility to increase agricultural


production through plasticulture technologies,” he added. As well as greenhouse and silage film, there are also opportunities for other types of plastic film – such as to line canals, ponds and reservoirs. For water manage- ment, monolayer polyethylene (PE) films are currently used, but there is scope to upgrade this technology, said Chavada – especially as India is prone to fluctuating


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Plastic film – whether biodegradable or not – offers huge opportunities to boost crop yields and save resources. Lou Reade reports


rainfall and a general scarcity of water. “Creating water resources using plastic film is the solution,” he told delegates. There is also plenty of potential for films for


mulching, greenhouses and soil solarisation. He added that, while the world average of polymer use in agriculture is 8%, in India it is just 2%. “There is a lot of potential for plastics applications,”


he said. Income boost


Adopting similar measures in sub-Saharan Africa could help small farmers to boost their incomes.


April 2017 | FILM & SHEET EXTRUSION 19


BASF’s Ecovio is commonly used to make mulch film


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