Agricultural Textiles: Gold Mines Yet To Be Excavated

Through suitable varieties selection and corresponding cultivation techniques, agriculture is applied.

The use of agricultural textiles plays an important role in promoting the modernization of agricultural economy.

Global agriculture

The evolution of agricultural textiles was developed along with the development of rope, belt and bag products. With the rise of nonwovens, the nonwovens began to be used as cover materials in greenhouse instead of polyethylene film, and rapidly sprung up all over the world.

At present, international agricultural textiles account for 15% of industrial textiles and China is 4~5%.

Like a big agricultural country like China, the agricultural economy is developing rapidly, and it always faces many prominent problems, such as large population, less land, lack of energy, fragile ecology, serious environmental pollution, fragile foundation and low comprehensive production capacity.

It is undoubtedly an opportunity and challenge for the textile industry to create a kind of agriculture that is not degraded in the environment, technically applied, economically viable and acceptable to the society. It needs to realize the multi-level recycling of materials through the development and application of advanced science and technology, and actively developing, developing, producing and applying various kinds of agricultural textiles.

Global: the average annual growth of agricultural textiles is 3.5%.

In the process of global agricultural modernization, the application of agricultural textiles has gradually formed a subdivision industry, and has become one of the most developed products in the textile industry, and has acquired new functions, such as anti ultraviolet, anti-corrosion and anti-corrosion protection. Many biodegradable textiles, greenhouse fabrics and crop growth substrates have been released.

In particular, the development of super absorbent fiber and composite technology has laid the foundation for the development of crop growth substrates.

Today, agricultural textiles are mainly used in soil cover, hail prevention, rainproof fabrics, sunshade fabrics, and so on. They can also be used for gardening, farming and other agricultural activities, helping to improve the quality and yield of agricultural products, reduce damage and reduce losses, and help prevent all kinds of hazards caused by environmental pollution.

Consumption of agro textiles in recent years (unit: 1000 tons; data source: Feria Valencia).

Consumption of agricultural textiles in various parts of the world (unit: millions of dollars; data: Feria Valencia).

In 1985, the consumption of agricultural nonwovens in the world was 554 thousand tons and doubled in 2005.

Due to cost reasons, the annual output of the global agricultural textiles market is about 2 million tons, with a value of US $5 billion.

According to the British David

Rigby Associates consultancy research shows that the average annual growth rate in this field is 3.5%.

China: Agricultural textiles have been included in the key development projects of 12th Five-Year.

China is a large agricultural country, and traditional agriculture occupies a large proportion. Therefore, in the process of improving agricultural technology content and accelerating the pformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, the demand for agricultural nonwovens is very wide.

It is understood that the potential market of agricultural textiles in China is as high as 5 billion square meters, but the current consumption accounts for only 1~2% of the demand market.

For example, China is a large country using agricultural plastic film. Its annual usage is 80~90 million tons, equivalent to the sum of consumption in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Since 1980s, China has introduced non-woven technology covering materials from Japan and agricultural chemical fiber net covering cultivation technology, which has raised the climax of the use of industrial textiles in the field of agriculture.

In China, agricultural textiles have also been included in the "12th Five-Year plan" outline. Zhu Minru, director of the China Industrial Textiles Association, said that the industrial textiles that were included in the 12th Five-Year plan were geotextiles, filter materials, agricultural textiles, medical and health textiles and labor protection materials.

Among them, agricultural textiles is undoubtedly a new hot spot.

With the increase of population and the increase of land, it is necessary to use high-tech industrial textiles to ensure food supply and meet people's basic living needs.

At present, the production of off-season fruits and vegetables and some cash crops is getting higher and higher with the use of non-woven fabrics instead of plastic film.

According to Chairman Zhu, during the 12th Five-Year, the application technologies of agricultural textiles to be popularized include: promoting the application technology of agricultural slow release materials on economic crops and fruit trees; popularizing the application technology of light and durable water-saving irrigation, collecting water and storing water materials in long arid areas; and increasing the application technology of insect resistant packaging materials on vegetables and other crops.

After the implementation of the project, agricultural income can be increased, the loss of agricultural products due to bad weather will be reduced, and the collection and utilization of water resources in arid areas will be solved, and the input cost will be reduced.

Inject modern vitality into traditional agriculture

The application of textiles in agriculture is not only manifested in the yearly increase of product variety and quantity, but also in the subdivision of the end use and market demand of the product.

Agricultural textiles, with their superior mechanical properties, workability, vertical stiffness, affinity and other unique functions, have become important materials to change the backward and extensive operation mode of traditional agriculture. They play an important role in improving the quantity and quality safety of agricultural products, agricultural resources safety, agricultural ecological environment safety, and agricultural product market competitiveness.

At present, most of the agricultural textiles in the market are nonwovens made of polyester, polypropylene staple fiber and filament spunbond, and also have high strength fibers woven or knitted into netted fabrics.

In terms of processing technology, there are three main categories: organic fabrics, knitted fabrics and nonwoven fabrics.

Traditional agricultural fabrics are made of integrated fabric and attached processing technology, such as waterproof and moisture permeating technology, fabric laminating technology, fiber reinforced polymer composite technology and so on.

Among them, agricultural nonwovens and agricultural chemical fiber nets are two important application categories.

Fabric and nonwovens are the most widely used.

Agricultural textiles have high strength, good space stability, strong strength, toughness, impact resistance, harsh environment tolerance, and easy processing. They are suitable for mandatory protection of crops under natural conditions. They are applied to breeding, pesticide, chemical fertilizer and agricultural new technology, etc., to help agricultural and sideline products to be early mature, high yield, stable yield, pollution-free and pollution-free cultivation, and replace agricultural thin films, plastics and other materials.

Nonwoven fabrics instead of plastic films are used to increase crop yields for off-season crops.

The covering materials made from agricultural nonwovens and thick non-woven fabrics have covered cold and frost prevention, sun shading, drought prevention, pest control, grass prevention, grass protection, heat preservation and moisture retention, fruit tree protection, seedling cultivation and seeding substrates.

In particular, there are some multifunctional agricultural mulching materials which can prevent insects, prevent grass, fertilize and sow. It has better air permeability, water permeability and moisture retention. In addition, the use of biological agents or deterrent agents to block solar radiation, prevent weed growth, and prevent diseases and pests.

The use of shading fabrics in vegetables, gardening and animal husbandry can avoid the use of harmful chemicals such as herbicides or insecticides. If natural fiber fabrics are used, they can also be slowly decomposed so that the soil can be re cultivated.

Agricultural textiles can also maintain effective soil moisture and raise soil temperature, which helps to extend plant growth cycle, especially in early spring, under temperature and climate conditions, helping to increase production, prevent the invasion of pests and prevent the damage caused by storm damage.

In terms of engineering drainage, there are three main types of agricultural textile drainage pipes: Organic weaving pipe, knitting pipe and nonwoven composite pipe.

Woven pipe is mostly double-layer fabric, and the knitted tube is mostly cylindrical fabric.

The new type of nonwoven composite drainage pipe can be used in many occasions, and has good filtration and drainage performance.

Some of the world's producers and products of agricultural textiles.

In the field of turf cultivation, the plant cultivation substrate made of biodegradable hemp fiber is made of warp knitted or weft knitting technology. It not only solves the problem of slow and tedious lawn laying in traditional turf pplantation, but also is clean, hygienic, disease free, insect free, sterile, tasteless and odorless. It is an ideal material for cultivating turf.

In terms of rice seedling raising, the new spunbonded polypropylene nonwoven rice seedling tray has good isolation, high strength, light weight and good effect. It can realize the early maturity, high yield, stable yield, pollution-free and pollution-free cultivation of agricultural and sideline products.

Nonwoven fabric has good permeability to air and water, and loose structure has good microclimate regulation and nutrition storage function. It is used as cover material to improve growth environment and protect crops.

Agricultural chemical fiber network is small but indispensable.

Rope, cable and packaging bags and fruit packaging protection nets are also another major application area of agricultural textiles, which are used for crop protection, including protection and cultivation of vegetables, flowers, fruits and vine plants, or preventing trampling of livestock.

Transport bags, feed bags and special bags have high strength requirements. They are woven from warp knitted fabrics and woven fabrics to store fruits and cereals. Glass fiber woven fabric reinforced products combined with fabric and composite processing technology can also be used for the storage of farm products and food.

There are shading nets, insect proof nets and windproof sand fixing nets for agricultural chemical fiber net.

For example, the new silver reflector can effectively reflect the strong sunlight, reduce the temperature by 2~3 degrees, and facilitate plant growth. It can also effectively prevent adult insects from invading and spawning, so that vegetables, fruits and flowers are not contaminated by chemical pesticides.

In breeding, high strength polypropylene fiber and hemp fiber can be used to weave small mesh into pads. Regular addition of plant seeds can not only help plants germinate and rooting, but also prevent soil loss.

In order to improve the degradability of fiber materials, the United States has made many kinds of biodegradable soil blanket, which is made of coconut fiber, straw and wheat straw.

It is worth mentioning that the harmless treatment and resource utilization of agricultural wastes is becoming an indicator for evaluating the health of agricultural ecosystem. The development of multi-functional and environmentally friendly textiles suitable for agricultural production and the efficient utilization of agricultural environmental resources and ecological safety will become the mainstream of the development of high-tech agricultural textiles in the future.