Chapter 14 Mulch Plastic Systems: Recent Advances and Applications

NANCY LIS GARCIA; SILVIA GOYANES; VERÓNICA MANZANO; NORMA D?ACCORSO; CARLOS RODRÍGUEZ RAMÍREZ

Mulch Plastic Systems: Recent Advances and Applications

Springer

Año: 2019; p. 265 - 290

In the field of agriculture, the introduction of mulches revolutionized thecommercial production of some vegetables, fruits and grain crops due to its instanteconomic benefits such as higher yields and improved crop quality. While the agriculturalsurface assisted with mulching films shows growing demand throughout theworld, the sustainability of these films remains vague in terms of both an environmentaland agronomic perspective. This chapter describes the evolution of the filmsused with special attention to the associated problems of undesirable end-of-life ofnon-biodegradable plastic mulch (non-BDM) films as compared with BDMdesigned to degrade without hazard to biota. Current trends in future, new productiontechniques for these films such as electrospinning as well as standardized laboratorytesting processes are also discussed.