Agriculture still continues to be the most important means of livelihood
for a large number of rural Indians. Therefore tackling the problems posed
by drought becomes one of the most crucial tasks for the Government. It
is also commonly believed that it is possible to conserve irrigation water
through managing the discharge efficiently. Drip irrigation provides an
efficient alternative but is rather expensive. With this as the back drop,
juxtaposing with scenarios of recent development of new materials at premier
institutes like NAL, the Council undertook a project with the primary objective
of exploring the possibility of plant irrigation using FRP tubes. Drip irrigation
is a very well known method of ensuring the right amount of water in the
locality of the plant growth. But the nozzles used at the delivery end suffer
from the defects arising out of flow blockages due to impure water (suspended
particles) or due to natural corrosion of the metal. Leakages at the junction
between the nozzles and the delivery tube have also been observed. Scientists
working in the area of materials - plastics - feel that porousFRP tubes
can be developed with the right degree of porosity to ensure the correct
amount of discharge of water in the locality of the plant growth.
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