AFRICA ( Commonwealth Union) _ With their novel eco-plastic potting bags, researchers at the National Agriculture Research Institute in Uganda hope to protect the environment from plastic trash.
Farmers have long potted seedlings in plastic wrap. At the planting stage, the plastic wraps are discarded, endangering the ecology. Scientists in Uganda have now developed a biodegradable variety planted in the soil with the seedlings. The bio-plastic decomposes in the soil and replenishes the farm’s nutrients.
According to Dr. Ephraim Nuwamanya at the Heads Biochemistry Unit, National Agriculture Research Institute states that it comes from our own agricultural waste, which means, banana, cassava, and cereal can be used, unlike the traditional ones where we have to use oil-based plastic material or what we call the fossil-based plastics. Heads of the National Agriculture Research Institute’s Biochemistry Division the use of agricultural waste’s potential. 60% of Uganda’s environmental damage is caused by plastic garbage. The majority of this is discharged into drainage systems and into Lake Victoria, which is used by millions of people.
Single-use plastic has been banned by the government numerous times, although it has never been carried through. The researchers are currently producing bioplastic bags using easily accessible farm waste. The paste is prepared as follows: Farm waste is dried, ground into a powder, and combined with other ingredients, such as starch, to create a paste. For use as seedling pots, the mixture is dried and rolled out into this sheet of biodegradable plastic.
Farmers of seedlings are doing field tests in the eastern Ugandan region of Mount Elgon. However, insects can easily attack the bags. To prevent paste attacks, researchers have created a plant-based repellent.
According to Biochemistry master’s student Profilio Tukundane, We are confident that the moment you apply it on the bio-plastic it will be effective and repel the insects. At the same time, it also has mortality effects, it kills some of them, that is in case the concentration is high, the Makerere University student continues. Up to 1.4 million tonnes of agricultural waste are produced in Uganda each year, and the majority of it goes to waste.
Farmers will gain a great deal from this effort, according to the researchers, by selling garbage for processing. To implement mass production, Uganda is collaborating with the University of Bangor in the United Kingdom.
