An Overview on Test Standards for Evaluation of Jute Agrotextiles

摘要

The growth of the Indian Economy is significantly reliant o n the success of the agriculture community. Traditional methods are limited in their ability to increase yields with the current constraints of restricted space and water supply. In this context, Agrotextiles have proved to be an effective alternative that delivers strong results despite the constraints. Some of the benefits of the usage of agrotextiles are enhancing freshness in fruits and vegetables, prevents soil from drying, protection from harmful pesticides, yield increase etc. However, due to the growing environmental concern across the globe, scientists, technologists and researchers are in search of natural agrotextile and jute agrotextile (JAT) seems to be the most potential candidate in responding to their search. JAT is highly effective in agri-horticulture and forestry for higher agricultural yield. Extensive research works and field study have been conducted with encouraging results. Now, there is a dire need for quality control in terms of testing and evaluation of JAT demanding formulation of new international standards for testing. The existing test standards for synthetic agrotextiles for evaluating different end use property parameters are not uniform globally i.e., these test standards vary from country to country. However, in the field of standardization for testing of different properties of JAT there is a paucity of data for formulation of specifications and quality control guidelines. Test standards for synthetic agrotextiles understandably do not exactly apply to JAT. While study is on to develop exclusive test and design standard for JAT, there is need to adopt any of the existing standards for synthetic agrotextiles that cater to the majority of requirements in the interim period. The paper suggests adoption of ASTM standards for testi ng JAT because of the wide range of test standards available and their credibility.