Vijayawada, March 24: Union Minister of State for Textiles Panabaka Lakshmi has called upon farmers to make use of woven, non-woven and knitted fabrics in agriculture to improve the yield apart from producing healthy agriculture products.
Speaking at a seminar organised by the Office of Textile Commissioner, Mumbai and Synthetic Art Silk Mills Research Association (SASMIRA) in association with Regional Office of Textile Commissioner, Bangalore and Joint Director of Agriculture, Krishna district on the theme `Protective Agro-textiles – Advantages and Future Prospects’, the Minister said that use of Agro-textiles would help in soil conservation.
“Preliminary studies revealed that using woven fabric of definite gauze would increase the harvest from 10 to 40 per cent,” the Minister pointed out.
“The Agro-textiles are used to prevent growth of harmful weeds in agriculture,” she added.
Panabaka Lakshmi called upon farmers to use Agro-textiles to improve the product quality saying that it would protect farmers from harmful pesticides.
“Products like shade netting and thermal screens are popular can save up to 40 per cent energy in heating greenhouses,” she maintained.
She said that use of agro-textiles would improve the quality of fruit and prevent staining besides improving uniformity in colour.
Textiles Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles, Mumbai AB Joshi said that different forms of Agro-textiles were made available such as nets, sheets, woven, non-woven, knitted, novel and coated. He said that now they are being used in Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Husbandry for better yield.
President SASMIRA, MH Doshi said they were doing lot of research in the field to encourage the usage of textiles in agriculture. He said those Agro-textiles were degradable and also useful as natural fertilizers.
Prof. D Anita from the College of Home Science, Hyderabad gave a power point presentation on the usage of Agro-textiles. Director SASMI RA U K Gangopadhyay, Join Director Agriculture Krishna district T Sree Rama Murthy, Assistant General Manager NABARD M Madhu Murthy and Assistant Director of Horticulture T Balaji Naik spoke.
Farmers from all the coastal districts and agriculture officials were present.
–Agencies