Polyethylene (PE) Mulching-Applications and advances

摘要

MULCHING is the practice of covering the soil around a plant or a row crop plants with a suitable material to modify the soil environment favorably and to reduce evaporation losses and weed population.This has been in practice for many centuries and people used to cover the soil with dry leaves,straw,hay,stones etc.It was during 1920's synthetic material like paper mulches were used.Gradually plastics due its inherent advantages replaced paper in this application.Today,different types of PE mulch films are being used and it accounts for one of the biggest application sector in agriculture with worldwide area coverage of over 4 million hectare (Ha).