What is Agrotech?
Updated: Nov 22, 2021
Agrotech; It includes textiles used in agriculture, horticulture and fishing. Agricultural technical textiles have started to be used for the protection, collection and storage of the products in order to minimize the effect of adverse natural conditions in the production of agricultural products. Since the technical textiles used in the field of Agrotech have been used for many years, their market has reached a saturation and a large increase in production is not expected.
The main functions required from agricultural technical textiles are: Covering, protecting, supporting and packaging. For this reason, geotech, packtech, indutech, protech and buildtech technical textile materials used for agricultural purposes are also included in the field of agrotech.
Agricultural technical textiles: It is used in many applications such as packaging agricultural products, accelerating the growth process of plants, protecting the crops from UV rays, disinfection of agricultural areas, preventing the growth of weeds, agricultural drainage and erosion control, protection of animals from weather conditions in livestock breeding, fishing...
Technical textiles in these applications: In nets, ropes, sacks, shades to protect plants from the sun, greenhouses, heat insulation, protection from weeds, protection from wind and hail, seed germination to protect seeds, support the soil, protective clothing, hoses, conveyor belts, filters. they are preferred. Special nets used in marine fishing are also included in the field of agricultural technical textiles and create a growing market.
Geotextiles in agricultural technical textiles, drainage and soil improvement; in protecting the soil and people working with protective textiles, sprays and harmful substances; transport technical textiles, tractors and trucks; They are used in industrial textiles, hoses, filters and reinforcement of silo tanks and pipelines.
Woven, knitted and nonwoven structures can be used in Agrotech products. Nonwoven surfaces are used as canopy, thermal insulation material and weed inhibitor. Heavy weight woven, knitted and nonwoven fabrics are used for protection from wind and hail.
Nets replace traditional bale twines for wrapping modern round bales. Capillary nonwoven mats are used in horticulture to distribute moisture to growing plants. Instead of small jute, paper or plastic bags used to transport fertilizers and agricultural products, today woven polypropylene bags (big bags) that can carry products up to several tons are used.
Technical textiles have been used in agriculture for many years. In these products, natural fibers (jute, sisal, kenaf, etc.) provide an advantage over synthetic fibers. Polypropylene is a fiber that is mostly preferred in agriculture and gardening. In addition, polyethylene films find use, especially for the protection of weeds and for the rapid growth of plants.
Polyethylene and polypropylene nonwoven surfaces can be used to protect plants from cold. Polyamide and polyester nets are used to protect against harmful insects. Knitted structures made of polyethylene to protect against hail have been used in fruit growing.
Windproof structures can be used to protect animal shelters. These structures are generally produced from polyester or polyethylene.
In addition, the use of high strength polyethylene (HMPE (Dyneema® and Spectra®)) fibers in high strength fishing nets has increased in recent years. Another fiber used in fishing, especially in net making, is polyamide.
REFERENCES
Diren MECİT, Sevcan ILGAZ, Deniz DURAN, Güldemet BAŞAL, Tülay GÜLÜMSER, Işık TARAKÇIOĞLU, "Teknik Tekstiller ve Kullanım Alanları (Bölüm 2)", Tekstil ve Konfeksiyon, 3/2007: 157,158.