UK-China Agritech Challenge Zero-Waste Agricultural Mulch Films for Crops in China (ZEWAMFI)

This collaborative project aims at improving sustainable agriculture in China with positive impacts on farming communities,
specifically a continuous increase of crop yield productivity (and associated farmer's wealth) with reduced use of water, and
agrochemicals (nitrogen fertilisers, and pesticides), therefore improving farm workers safety. With the advent of Global
Warming, semi-arid regions from Asia and the Middle East are forecasted to receive less rainfall making the use of such
films a necessity for the production of arable food crops.
The project will develop cost competitive agricultural mulch films for arable crops that will perform during use but degrade
thereafter and have no negative impact in terms of producing micro-plastics.
Agriculture plastics are used in China to improved grain crop yield and water use efficiency through conserving water,
maintaining soil moisture, suppressing losses due to weeds/birds, increasing temperature and improving cold tolerance.
Their use has led to a 20-35% increase in grain crop yield and a 20-60% increase in cash crop yield. Maize, wheat, cotton
and potato yields have increased by 33.7%, 33.2%, 26.1% and 36.7%, respectively, while their corresponding water use
efficiency levels have increased by 38.9%, 30.2%, 30.2% and 37.8%. The typical application time of agricultural plastics
mulches in agriculture lasts only a few months and can be reduced even further when exposed to extreme weather events
such as hail and storms due to physical fragmentation and chemical ageing processes. These generate significant amounts
of non-degradable, hardly recyclable waste, which pollute the environment either through incineration emissions, landfill
leaching or microplastic residues. If not removed from the field, plastic waste accumulates in the environment where it may
pose a considerable threat to terrestrial and aquatic wildlife when taken up in the food chain.
This project focuses on novel plastic films that will maintain benefits related to increased crop productivity but will eliminate
microplastic pollution in land, an unfortunate consequence of the agri-plastic mulch use, by being soil degradable. Negative
impacts of microplastic pollution of oceans are well described and recent research has shown that where plastic mulches
have been used and ploughed back into fields repeatedly, microplastic residue ranges from 72 kg/ha to 260 kg/ha. Plant
growth is inhibited at these levels, and the accumulated plastic residue may affect soil moisture, nutrient transport, and
secondary salinization.
Compostable polyester mulch films have been introduced in the EU/US market, but these are expensive and can be used
in high-value horticultural production.
This collaborative project will design polymeric films that will be cost-competitive and could be used in arable crops (wheat,
maize) will be stable during use, coupled with an end-of-life scenarios where they will be eaten by soil micro-organisms.
The initial degradation will be catalyzed by oxodegradable additives, that will fragment the material, and specific enzymes/
micro-organisms with suitable formulation will then metabolize the remaining material. Credible science data to evaluate
the behaviour of high performance agricultural polymeric materials will back-up the claims made on the products
A major consortium to deliver the above include Wells Plastic, currently exporting oxo-biodegradable resins and join knowhow
developed by academic partners CAAS and Bangor Uni. CASS is the main academic institution in China involved in
investigating plastics in agriculture, and Bangor University has bee working on bioplastics (for food applications) but has
also unique collections of microorganisms collected over years (both from marine, and forestry sources).

This project will impact on the Chinese society at large and on governmental policies as it will contribute to increase rural communities' profitability and well being, improve the environmental sustainability of major agricultural-staple crops, and reduce pesticide and plastic contamination of soil and underground water. A) Economics. A1) Increased profitability to the Chinese farmers through lowered input costs, improved standard of living to the growers especially the small growers in the North East of China (semi-arid, suffering from water deficit) and to the communities in which they live through a wealth cascade within these communities. It is estimated that losses of US$ 1.080/Ha in the crop production in 2012/2013 have been associated with the attacks from pest/ weeds despite the current (inefficient) control costs US$ 200 to $400/Ha. A2)
Development of an industrial platform in China that will allow the development of sustainable crop production with the reduced input of agrichemicals B) Social. Improved health of workers and those living and working on the crop production areas. Current high volume use of insecticide in cash crop farming in China has damaging implications for rural
communities, FALTA. C) Environmental. The main aim of the project is to maintain soil productivity, avoiding the contamination of streams and ground water by chemical run-off and the introduction of micro plastics plastic pollution. The approach described will lead to a rapid improvement of farmers life, but be unfortunately unlikely to be measurable during the course of this particular project. The mulch films will also reduce negative effects on non-target species such as honey bees and will preserve and enhance biodiversity in the medium term.