Waxed sand instead of plastic? Farmers can get an alternative

In the journal ACS Agricultural Science & Technology An interesting article was published about the work of a team of scientists from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). They decided to solve the problem of using plastic sheets along the rows of crops that are used by farmers to retain moisture in the soil. Solution? Sand covered with wax, which has many advantages.

Sand covered with wax instead of plastic

While the mere use of these plastic sheets makes great sense, they are usually replaced every year. This, in turn, harms the environment in two ways. On the one hand, this often causes pieces of plastic to separate from the sheets, some of which are not cleaned and remain in the environment, and on the other hand, it causes the remaining whole sheets to end up in a landfill. However, they can be replaced with silica sand covered with purified paraffin, i.e. the one that is harmless to the environment.

Scientists put this into practice by coating the grains of sand with a 20nm layer of hydrophobic wax in a relatively simple manner. They then spread it across an agricultural field in a thin layer and confirmed in an experiment that it reduced moisture loss by 56-78%.

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If that was not enough, the enriched sand in the form of mulch for wheat, barley and tomatoes meant that these plants generated up to 73% of the yield. The mere presence of SHS had no effect on the amount and variety of beneficial soil microorganisms at the key point of root-soil contact. Introducing this solution to agricultural fields is apparently simple, but nothing is known about its practical application.