Mulching Techniques to Conserve the Soil Water and Advance the Crop Production - A Review

Abstract

The necessity to increase the production of food grains and enhances the quality of surrounding environment has leaded to find the materials to control or regulate the water and wind erosion. Mulching has become now a days an essential and decisive exercise in agricultural production. It lessens the application of herbicides and various chemical fertilizers, control the weeds and maintains the soil moisture and soil temperature. This article consists of the detail reviews of different research conducted on mulches and elaborate the opportunities that they resolving the problem in agriculture. The resources of water for agricultural operations have been inadequate over the years as a result of global warming and uneven or uncertain rainfall in the low rainfall zones of India. To alleviate the water scarcity in agriculture, mulching has a vital impact as a water conserving technique in rain-fed cropping. It is very important primarily for preserving the soil moisture, preventing evaporation of soil and governing the soil temperature, which affects the food production. India being an agricultural country should have a better admiration towards water conservation tactics. By now we are fighting from a great stress of water insufficiency. Each and every drop of water is important for us but inappropriately because of inattentiveness, we repeatedly waste gigantic volume of water in which 70 to 80 % is passed down for irrigation purpose. Mulching and micro- irrigation techniques can play a vital role in controlling the over and excessive irrigation. This practice assistance to prevent weed growth, increment soil moisture, reduce soil erosion, maintain soil temperature, augments soil structure, improves soil fertility and improvise soil biological regime. There are several categories of mulching which are organic mulching, inorganic mulching, natural mulching, synthetic mulching, surface mulching, upright mulching or vertical mulching, plastic mulching, rubber mulching, pebble or stone mulching, dust mulching, straw mulching, landscape fabric, live vegetative barriers etc. Mulching also shows some limitations beyond many advantages as it may harbor some insects, pests and diseases and also create some weed problems sometimes. The current analysis deals with argument of every single feature of mulching and it’s beneficiary effects.