Field Trial of Jute Mulch Material at Farmers Field: A case study

Abstract

The economic value of most horticultural crops justifies the modification of crops microenvironment to accelerate growth, improve quality and/or extend the growing season. Mulches are very useful for maintaining unifrom moisture conditions in the orchard. Water loss through evaporation is decreased and soil erosion is decreased as the impact of a heavy rainfall is reduced by the layer of mulch. The beneficial effect of mulches includes better control of weeds. Soil moisture levels are usually higher under mulched than unmulched soils because mulch acts as vapour barrier which reduces evaporation. Jute based agro textile material has been used as mulch material at farmer's field at Satyapole village of Haringhata, Nadia district of West Bengal to conduct a field experiment on utilization of jute agrotextile as mulch material in broccoli crop in 100 square metre of farmland. Two types of jute mulch were used for the experimentation. First, Jute mulch from good quality jute fibre and second, jute mulch from waste jute fibre and these are compared with no-mulch as control.