Mulching | Definition, Benefits and its Popularity

Mulching 

• Just after sowing of crop a protective layer of material to the field soil surface is applied. This is called mulching
• The material could be 
• organic and biodegradable 



Mulching

• Paddy straw, sugarcane bark, dry grass, trees leaves and even newspaper, wool, animal manure, saw dust, wood chips, peat moss etc
• inorganic and non biodegradable
• polythene sheets, rubber, plastic etc..

Benefits

• Very effective for pest management and disease control.
• Weed seedlings cannot survive under the mulch, which also means not having to use chemical weedicides. 
• Reduces evaporation from the soil bed. 
• Less irrigation frequency
• Protection from soil erosion
• Fertility is enhanced with biodegradable mulches like dry paddy straw as they contain 50-70 per cent nutrients that slowly decompose in the soil
• It creates an ideal environment for earthworms and other beneficial organisms to grow on the soil. 
• Specially beneficial for turmeric, potatoes, sugarcane, melons and all types of vegetables
• More even soil temperature is maintained
• keeps fruits and vegetables clean
• For small lawns
• it keeps feet clean providing easy access to garden
• a finished look to garden
• Reduces compaction from the impact of heavy rains

Is it popular?

• Hardly popular. Lets do case study of Punjab - one of the most important agriculture states
• e.g. Punjab has ~12 lac farmers but mulching is done by only few hundred.
• Punjab consumes highest average fertilizer and pesticide usage in India, apart from 75 per cent of its area under the ‘dark zone’ signifying severe groundwater scarcity
• Punjab produces an estimated 38 million tonnes of straw annually
• (over half of which is from paddy). 
• Wheat straw is used as cattle feed, there is no such use for paddy straw.
• About 80 per cent of the latter — some 16 million tonnes — is simply burnt in the fields after harvesting to clear the land for the next sowing. 
• This abundant straw can potentially be used by every farmer for mulching, thereby addressing a major source of air pollution in the state

References: The Indian Express, Wikipedia