This wonder gel is helping farmers save water while multiplying yields

Laxmi Lokkur, a farmer from the Udikeri village in Karnataka’s Belgaum district, has been able to triple her yield over the past two years, despite the monsoon playing truant.

The innovative farmer uses a polymer-based bio-degradable gel to ‘irrigate’ her 24-acre farm, where she grows vegetables, fruits and cereals.

The gel, Pusa Hydrogel, a semi-synthetic super absorbent polymer, has been developed by the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI). It is mixed with the soil on which the seeds are sown.

The gel then absorbs water and expands to 300 times its original size.

It sticks to the roots of the plants and when the soil moisture falls as the temperature rises, the gel sheds water to nourish the crop.

Pusa Hydrogel has been in use since 2012, and its benefits are now being reaped across the country. Extensive trials have established that Pusa is non-toxic and bio-degradable, said HS Gupta, Director of IARI. It increases plant yield by 10-25 per cent. Even ITC Ltd has reported encouraging results from its fields, he said.

IARI has licensed the technology to six Indian companies, including the Murugappa Group’s Carborundum Universal India.

Lokkur, whose village is in a rain shadow area, told BusinessLine that before she started using the gel during the summer seasons, she cultivated only three to four acres of her farm due to water scarcity. Today, she uses up to 15 acres.

Her cotton production had shot up to 12 quintals per acre compared with her neighbours’ 6-8 quintals. Jowar was at eight quintals while other farmers got only three-four quintals. Similarly, she produced eight quintals of wheat compared with the four quintals produced by others.

Jagadeesh Sunkad, Project Leader at Carborundum Universal, pointed out that because of the unpredictable monsoon and water availability for farming, crops across the country suffer due to either excess water in the fields or inadequate water.

The gel mitigates the risks, if the water availability drops.

It works as an anti-drought mechanism and reduces the water requirement of plants. Typically, a farmer irrigates his field every four days for high value crops, but with the gel, he can irrigate the farm every eight days, said Sunkad.

“Farmers are able to defer irrigation cycles and hence use the water effectively. Due to use of Pusa, there is a 40 to 70 per cent saving of water.

It also reduces fertiliser application — as it binds the fertiliser to the root, it reduces leaching of fertilisers,” he said.

The gel helps crops store water for a dry spell and aids farmers to cope with the increasingly unpredictable monsoon seasons.

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