Plasticulture to play a major role in doubling farmers' income by 2022

The agriculture sector has immense opportunities for plasticulture (ie use of plastics in agricultural activity) in terms of efficient usage of water. If reused and recycled properly, plastics can play a pivotal role in water handling, storage, conservation as well as transportation, said Neelkamal Darbari, Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Government of Rajasthan, at Ficci’s event on plasticulture in Jaipur last week. 

She explained, “In order to achieve the mission of doubling farmers' income by 2022, it is imperative that low cost and high quality plastic should be made available to the farmers. Being a scarce and valuable resource, water should be used judiciously and plasticulture will go a long way in limiting its use. New technology and processes should also be made available to the farmers so that the productivity and product quality can be increased with limited usage of water.”

There are varied applications of plastic across multiple industries but the penetration is low in agriculture sector. “With rising population, increasing food requirement and decrease in the per capita arable land, there is a dire need for increased productivity. The technological challenges faced by the country due to water stress can be addressed by plasticulture. It will lead to efficient management of resources as well as reduction in the use of water and fertilisers,” stated Manish Panchal, senior practice head, Tata Strategic Management Group.

Highlighting the importance of adopting various plasticulture methods and the role played by it to bring prosperity to the Indian agriculture sector, Pankaj Mehta, vice president (industry affairs), Reliance Industries Limited, said, “Farmers should adopt micro irrigation technologies for improving water use efficiency which will further increase the productivity of the crops.”

Arijit Sengupta, director, Irrigation Association of India (IAI), added, “Micro irrigation should be made mandatory for water guzzling crops like sugarcane and cotton. Industry leaders, manufactures and government should work more closely to spread the awareness about plasticulture and make it easily available at a low cost to the farmers.”