Ram Prakash Singh¹, Kamlesh Narayan Tiwari², Pubali Adhikary¹ and Ganesh Chandra Padhi^2
1Materials Science Centre, ²Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Kharagpur-721302, India

Abstract: The drag reducing polymers reduce the drag in turbulent flows while increase the drag in laminar flows due to an increase in the shear viscosity. At the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, these aspects of drag reducing polymers have been successfully applied in reducing the energy requirements of sprinkler irrigation system and in reducing the percolation losses through soil as well as in the development of slow release urea by Prof.Singh and his co-workers. Thus the novel application of drag reducing polymers has ushered in an integrated technology for saving energy, water and fertilizer. It has been established that the grafted polysaccharides provide higher energy saving and reduction of percolation losses. In the present investigation, the application of most efficient graft copolymer of amylopectin and polyacrylamide has been undertaken for reduction of power consumption and uniformity coefficient and distribution efficiency studies of microsprinkler system. The long term effect of grafted amylopectin has been studied on soil conditioning and crop growth. It has been shown there is positive gain in the yield and there is no adverse effect on soil conditioning.

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