NEW DELHI: The Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) - a government institution - has indigenously developed a novel hydrophilic super absorbent polymer which will help farmers in using water with utmost efficiency in agriculture practices in arid and semi-arid regions of the country. 

The technology, comprising super absorbent hydro-gels, will be commercialized by the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) - a ministry of science and technology enterprise - and the Reliance Industry Limited (RIL).

Since hydro-gel has capacity to absorb a minimum of 350 times its weight of pure water at 50 degree Celsius, its use will help farmer in getting high productivity by using much less quantity of water. Agriculture scientists claim that its use will also improve physical properties of soil such as porosity, aggregate stability and hydraulic conductivity.

After successfully testing its potential, the NRDC and the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) executed an agreement for commercialization of this novel super absorbent hydro-gel technology. 

"The scientists had successfully demonstrated the potential of resolving the problem of poor water use efficiency in agricultural crops. Besides improved nutrient use efficiency, an array of other benefits has also been achieved by using this product", said an official statement of the ministry of earth science. 

It said, "The NRDC is about to execute another agreement with a Chennai based company for the transfer of the same technology". 

Sharing the details of the technology, the ministry claimed that "no undesirable effect on the crops raised in the fields treated with hydro-gel has ever been observed or reported by the experimenters or the end users (farmers)".