Agriculture has an important role to play in the Indian economy. Way back in 1950, this sector contributed more than 50% of the GDP. Interestingly, India had to import foodgrains despite the predominant role of agriculture in the Indian economy. The green revolution introduced by concerted efforts of the Government of India under the leadership of Dr. Swaminathan, gradually reduced the dependence of the country on agriculture, as crop cultivation and water management systems improved. As a result, the present contribution of agriculture to the GDP is just about 22%. The food grain production, growing at about 2-3% in the last decade, is expected to reach a level of 209 million metric tons in 2005. India is not only self sufficient with more than 50 million tons of food grain as reserve, but also exports foodgrains. Vegetable and fruit production is about 100 million metric tons.
In the current scenario, while contribution of agriculture to the Indian economy is reduced significantly, more than 60% of the Indian population directly or indirectly depends upon agricultural economy.

India has adopted some of the newer techniques for agriculture, but modern techniques involving the use of plastic is still lagging behind. The comparison with China is very apparent. While China's agricultural sector uses modern techniques and consumes plastic to a very great extent, agricultural sector in India uses a very small percent of the total plastic consumed in the country (about 5 million tons in 2005). IPCL, a leading producer of polymer, from the early eighties, devoted significant resources in developing the use of plastics in agriculture. The company was responsible for developing a separate section of Plasticulture in the Government of India under the name of National Committee of Plastic in Agriculture called NCPA. In 2001, NCPA was renamed as NCPAH- National Committee for Plasticulture Applications in Horticulture to emphasize the use of plastic in horticulture application. NCPAH at present has 17 Precision Farming Development Centers all around the country for development of the plastic application.

The water distribution for agricultural usage has made significant progress. In this application 180 KT of PVC and about 40 KT of HDPE pipe is used every year.
The Government of India over the last 50 years has lined canals with PE film. It is estimated that 40 KT of PE film alone is used for canal lining.
Another large use of plastic is in packaging of fertilizer. The use of fertilizer is increasing by about 4% every year. Fertilizer packaging is done in PE wovensacks that is lined internally with PE film. The consumption of PE bags used for packaging of fertilizer in 2005 is 100 KT.
All other applications of plastic do not measure to the size that are used in water distribution and fertilizer packaging.

India continues to depend upon water arising from monsoon (rain fall harvesting) and food grain production across the country continues to depend upon the rainfall. The modern techniques of micro-irrigation, where either drip or sprinkler systems are used for efficient use of water, are yet to be adopted by Indian farmers despite the fact that the Government provides financial assistance. The Government has allocated a huge amount in its tenth and eleventh 5-year plans, wherein the country desires to adopt 17 million hectares. If these plans succeed, a total of 2.4 million tons of plastic will be used for these applications. Drip irrigation rightly has more coverage (12 million hectares). PVC use will be at the level of 650 KT, PE will use will be at the level of 700 KT, PE will be required at 1650 KT, while only 100 KT of PP will be used. In these applications pipe, drip lateral and several types of fittings and attachments are required. PVC pipe as well as PE and PP pipes are usually in black colour and do not require any further UV stability since the addition of carbon black is adequate enough to provide the weather resistance.

India has wide range of weather all across the country. It therefore needs the crop cultivation in a controlled atmosphere. Green house as well as low tunnel cultivation could be very useful. In fact India has started using green house technique for cultivation of floriculture (particularly for rose). Ginegar is a leading Israeli company manufacturing UV stabilized PE films as well the other types of PE films for rose cultivation. It is estimated that Ginegar has almost 75% share of the business of PE film required for green house in India. In 2005, the total PE film used for green house was 1800 MT. While accurate data is not available it is believed to be 2100 MT on the maximum side and 1600 MT on the lowest side. Exhibit 1 summarizes the present consumption of PE film for green house in India. There only 4 Indian manufacturers of wide width PE film for this application.

Exhibit 1
Green house film suppliers In India : 2005
Company	Location	Region	Type of film		Est. Sale
Domestic
				Higher side	Lower side
Climax Synthetic	Vadodara	West	Mono layer	100	50
D. P. Wires Ltd	Ratlam	West	Mono layer	300	200
Essen Multipack	Rajkot	West	3 layer multi film	400	300
K. M. Enterprise	Silvassa	West	3 layer multi film	200	100
Total domestic				1000	650
Imports
Ginegar	Israel		3 & 5 layer multi film	1200	1000
Total imports				1200	1000
Exports				100	50
Net consumption				2100	1600

Green house PE film mainly requires UV stability that could provide 3 years of weather resistance. It therefore requires a higher dosage of UV masterbatch. Assuming the use of 10% masterbatch, the estimated requirement of UV masterbatch for this application would be 180 MT in 2005. However the local production of green house film at the maximum level of 1000 MT in 2005 would require 100 MT of UV masterbatch for this application.
Interestingly, shade net made from PE woven fabric has found wider usage in India. It is estimated that the local consumption of about 2500 MT will be reached in 2005. India also exports about 1100 MT of shade net. Exhibit 2 describes the shade net manufacturers in India. It requires UV stability and therefore uses UV stabilizer in making of PE films. Assuming the use of 5% of UV masterbatch for shade nets the estimated requirement of UV masterbatch is 180 MT/year in 2005.

Exhibit 2
Shade net woven PE fabric suppliers in India in 2005
Company	Location	Region	Sale (MT)
Agro Shade Industries	Anand	West	30
Agrotech	Anand	West	400
Amrish Engineering	Vapi	West	60
B & V Agro Irrigation Co.	Navi Mumbai	West	350
Colour Concentrate	Vapi	West	120
Dhanya Polymers	Rajpalayam	South	60
Golden Agronet	Karur	South	60
Malmo Exim Ltd.	Bhivandi	South	370
Netlon India Ltd.	Vadodara	West	800
Rishi Packers Ltd.	Daman	South	750
Shree Siddhivinayak Polyfab	Vapi	West	100
Sunpack	Rajapalayam	South	250
Supak Pvt. Ltd.	Rajapalayam	South	250
Total			3600
Export			1100
Net total			2500

Another application that requires UV stability is that of PP leno bags. Leno bags are used for packaging of fruits, vegetables etc. It is estimated that about 1000 MT of PP leno bags were consumed in 2005. It needs UV masterbatch at about 2-4% dosage level. At the average dosage of 3%, PP leno bags would require 30 MT of UV masterbatch in 2005. A total of 310 MT of UV masterbatch for agriculture sector was required in 2005. Nursery bags required in large quantities, are mostly made from recycled PE material.
For storage of food grain as well as fumigation storage structure made from 250-micron black PE film is widely used. It is called CAP (cover & plinth). It is estimated that every year 5000 MT of PE film is used for this application.

Mulching is an application that is not well developed in India. Black or two-colour film is more popular in India. Some also use clear film. It is estimated that 500 MT of PE film is used in mulch application.

From the above information it can be seen that the average consumption of plastic in agriculture is about 350 KT/year. At this level the share of plastic in agriculture from the total consumption of 5 million tonnes is just less than 0.7%. This figure does not speak high for India. India is a large country of 1.09 billion people and has huge production of food grain, vegetable and fruit production in the World. India has to go a long way before it.