Environment-friendly mulch mats from paddy straw

Mulch is commonly used for weed control in crop cultivation. The non-degradable mulch mats are environmentally unfriendly, toxic and expensive. Potentially it is urgent to come up with alternative organic materials from the accessible surrounding environment to be made for organic mulch for the farming field with simple technology. Organic mulch requires modification into more effective and efficient forms in usage by modifying it into sheet forms. In the present study an attempt has been made to develop ecofriendly mulch mats. The purpose of the developed mulch mats was to curb the growth of weeds to get better yield and to suggest another means for productive utilization of unutilized paddy straw. These techniques if made available, the benefits may be multifold.