Today water conservation is one of the major Global issues especially in developing countries like India. India has 4% of the worlds water, studies show average availability is shrinking steadily. It is estimated that by 2020, India would become a water-stressed nation. An innovative fibrous structure, Agro-Mat has been developed to reduce the consumption of water during irrigation of plants. Initial trials have established that the newly developed Agro-Mat can save water by 72% in comparison with traditional watering techniques, such as, Overhead Watering/Sprinkling etc. Additionally, these structures can also be used for the storage and transportation industry where uniform supply of moisture is required to reduce spoilage of raw or finished products.
As we, all know that Horticulture is very vast sector in India and without water, this can‟t survive. It is estimated that all the horticulture crops put together cover nearly 11.6 million hectares area with an annual production of 91 million tonnes. This shows that there is an urgent need to develop better watering systems to save both water and energy for the horticulture industry. It is also required to understand various watering techniques and its effect on plant performance to reduce the wastage of water.
Mr. Akshay Katyal B.Tech in Textile Technology from Panipat Institute of Engineering &Technology wrote this article, and this project had won first prize in the paper presentation competition organized by Pearl Academy of Fashion, New Delhi in year 2010.