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    Plastic mulch­ing tech­no­logy for en­hanced yields

    Farm­ers in drought stricken areas or with little rain­fall are ad­vised to adopt plastic mulch­ing tech­no­logy which is the prac­tice of cov­er­ing soil with poly­thene to make more fa­vor­able con­di­tions for plant growth, de­vel­op­ment and ef­fi­cient crop pro­duc­tion.

    Small-holder farm­ers can cut costs of ir­rig­a­tion and mech­an­iz­a­tion by ad­opt­ing plastic mulch­ing tech­no­logy.

    Min­istry of Ag­ri­cul­ture Ex­ten­sion of­ficer Samuel Mburu says just like tra­di­tional or­ganic mulch, which con­trols weeds and re­tained mois­ture con­tent in soils, this method boosts har­vests while re­du­cing labor re­quired in pro­duc­tion pro­cess.

    plastic mulching.JPG

    Leek onions planted on plastic mulch at the 2017 Nairobi In­ter­na­tional Trade Fair 2017. PIC/JAPHET RUTO, FARM­BIZ AFRICA

    READ ALSO:Mulch­ing helps farmer avoid drought ef­fects

    With de­ple­tion of ve­get­a­tion, agro-com­pan­ies have de­veloped syn­thetic mulch­ing ma­ter­i­als from plastics for small and large-scale farm­ers with open fields or green­houses.

    Al­though poly­thene mulch com­ple­ments drip ir­rig­a­tion es­pe­cially on large-scale, Mburu says, it is equally ap­pro­pri­ate for small-scale farm­ers like those with kit­chen gar­dens.

    READ ALSO: Mulch­ing beats new herb­i­cide re­stric­tions on ex­port products

    “We have no more grass, weeds and other or­ganic ma­ter­i­als to cover soil to pre­vent water loss. Farm­ers want to bring more land under ir­rig­a­tion, but los­ing the water to evap­or­a­tion will lead to high pro­duc­tion costs. An in­vestor would like to use little to earn more. Syn­thetic mulch comes in handy,” he says.

    READ ALSO: It is one ir­rig­a­tion in two months with poly­thene mulch­ing

    This prac­tice is com­mon with short sea­son crops such as to­ma­toes, cab­bage, kale, sun­flowers, maize, and cu­cum­bers, among oth­ers.

    With cli­mate change, the ex­ten­sion of­ficer says, farm­ers in high rain­fall areas are likely to suf­fer losses when it fails to fall due to altered pat­terns.

    Types of plastic mulch­ing tech­no­logy

    1. Poly­thene mulch
    • Made of polypro­pyl­ene poly­mers or poly­ethyl­ene poly­mers
    • It is bio-grad­able but breaks down slowly
    • The poly­thene mulch can be re­moved manu­ally at the end of the grow­ing sea­son
    • It can be re­cycled
    1. Bio-grad­able mulch
    • It is made from plant starches and sug­ars or poly­es­ter fibers
    • It breaks down fast hence re­du­cing soil pol­lu­tion
    • It can­not be re-used

    These types of mulch­ing in­creases water use ef­fi­ciency by re­du­cing evap­or­a­tion and im­prov­ing mois­ture dis­tri­bu­tion. It also mod­i­fies soil tem­per­at­ure en­cour­aging faster ger­min­a­tion and growth of crops. Plastic mulch­ing in­creases ni­tro­gen ef­fi­ciency and pre­vents weed growth by 100%. It can in­crease yields by 23-90%.

     

     

     

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