The authorities all over the world must undertake uniform policies to elevate jute business. Jute products industry is monumental for more food production, better status of peasants and small farmers, pollution free environment, inflation control, and over all sustainable development of the country and the world, due to its wonderful properties which I am going to explain in this article:
- Abundant availability
- Superior drape measures
- Greater moisture retention capacity
- Lower costs compared to synthetic Geo-textiles
- Ease of installation
- Bio-degradable properties
- Fire Resistant Properties
How Jute Can Contribute for Green & Sustainable Development?
1. Cleansing the Air
Studies have shown that, one hectare of jute plants can absorb up to 15 tons of carbon dioxide and release 11 tons of oxygen during the jute growing season (about 100 days) which is very good for our environment and planet.
2. Reducing Environment Pollution Up to the Large Extent
The application of jute is also a significant step in combating the use of different materials containing toxic wastes. Jute bags cuts down the employment of Plastic bags, as they pollutes the environment. The plastic bags have been effectively banned in India and many other countries due to the harmful components and jute is the best alternative to it.
Here, the toxic factor is complemented by the affordability and durability of the different jute products, which has made jute as one of the favorite products for all. It is a greener maneuver and a promising weapon against global warming and other major environmental problems. Again, these jute bags are good to carry around and used in different daily objects with the rise of innovative designs and standard quality.
3. Lowers the Burden From Natural Oil Reserves
As very few people know that plastics and poly bags are made from petroleum products, which is an extra burden over our natural petroleum oil resources. We can see that petroleum resources are depleting very fast which is resulting in the increased petroleum price and inflation rate. Even some countries are also opting for oil war. If we become able to substitute plastic and poly bags by the jute bags up to an extent then usage and price of petroleum will be decreased, inflation will come down significantly because as we know petroleum products play a very big role in increasing inflation.
4. Can Leave More Land for Cultivating Food Crops
Cotton bag is also famous among the people but it is necessary to know that jute crop requires very less acreage to grow in comparison to the jute. One hectare of field can produce much more jute fiber than that of the cotton which will eventually result in sparing more agricultural land to be available to grow food crops. If we succeed in switching to jute fiber up to an extent then more food can be produced and thus food inflation could be lowered.
5. Win Win Situation for the Backward Rural Areas
As jute is cultivated mostly in the backward areas of the world for example river delta areas of India and Bangladesh near the coast of Bay of Bengal, thus more and more entrepreneur will move to this area for setting up jute industry which would result in increased employment ratio and overall development of such backward rural and remote areas which will eventually result in less migration of these people to the urban areas. As we know that over crowding in urban areas has also become a very severe problem which puts an unbearable burden on the civic infrastructure of the urban areas.
6. Less Fertilizer, Herbicides, Pesticides, & Land Needed
Less fertilizer, herbicides, & pesticides are required: Relatively very modest amounts of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides are required for jute cultivation – especially in comparison to cotton. Thus more and more jute can be grown without putting any extra burden on the soil unlike in the case of cotton where lots of fertilizers, and pesticides are needed. On the other hand jute crop requires less area than cotton crop to grow the same amount of vegetable fiber.
7. Improves Soil Conditions, Texture and Fertility
After the jute cultivation, remnants and waste of jute like leaves and roots of jute plants remain in the field and mix with the soil which acts as manure and improves texture and fertility of the soil.
8. Jute Has High Production Efficiency than Cotton
Jute has high production efficiency than cotton crop. Jute can be harvested within 4 to 6 months, and can produce between 20 to 40 tons of dry stem per hectare. In comparison, the fastest growing trees take between 10 and 14 years to mature. Also, trees will only produce between 8 to 12 ton, per hectare, annually. Thus jute can be a best economical option for the people because of the low input cost. And this is the reason for why the exports of many jute products exporting companies has increased manifold.
9. Good For Other Crops Too
When jute crop is rotated with other crops on the same field, then it can increase the productivity of other crops and reduce their risk of attracting pests and disease, because during the jute crops many nutrients are replenished in the field soil which makes the soil very fertile and thus very beneficial for the next crop. Thus if jute is rotated with other crops then soil fertility is increased.
10. Eco Friendly Agricultural Practices
Jute agricultural practices are environment friendly and cause minimum impact to our environment instead it is beneficial for other crops, thus jute cultivation is a eco friendly agricultural practice.
11. Can Save Millions of Trees Worldwide
Each year lakhs of trees are cut just for wood and making paper and furniture. If we opt for jute made bags, jute made furniture and such jute furnishing products then I am sure that millions of trees can be saved from being lumbered which otherwise would be cut to make furniture, paper, paper bags, etc. There are good range of jute made furniture, furnishing products and bags are available in the market today which can be a best alternative for the paper bags and wooden furniture up to a large extent. If we succeed to replace paper bags and wooden furniture with jute bags and jute furniture respectively up to a significant level then we can save millions of trees from being cut.
Due to increasing level of awareness about our environment and the benefits of jute, more and more people are coming forward to include jute in their lifestyle. For example this article contains how one can include jute in his day to day life to make lifestyle green and eco friendly. It is not only limited to bags and furniture but jute products manufacturers are also manufacturing large varieties of jute made goods like stationery products, art & crafts, decorative articles, apparels, footwear, different types of bags, carpets, rugs, and many other in attractive texture, beautiful designs and excellent color and prints. Thus now people have more options to include jute in their eco friendly lifestyle.
12. Help Maintaining Environment and Eco Balance
Trees are very important for our planet and its environment to maintain environmental balance of the earth. Using jute products we can save these trees and can maintain the eco balance of our planet. When more trees are saved then lots of problems can be solved, like, loss of fertile soil due to soil erosion because of low soil retention capacity, floods, rain imbalance, soil fertility, global warming, climatic imbalance, shrinking habitat of wild animals, etc. You can understand it better if you are a geography or environmental science student or just by searching in Google by typing “importance of trees”.
Hope this article would serve my purpose to aware the people about amazing eco benefits of the jute and I wish people try to include one or more types ofjute made goods in their lifestyle if possible. I have also written a blog post which contains a big list of jute made products which can help make your home green and eco friendly.
I have also taken a few ideas from this article to write this great blog post.
