Kerala college researchers develop cheap, eco-friendly nursery pots to replace harmful plastic and PVC

A team of researchers and students of SD College, Alappuzha, has come up with a novel range of eco-friendly products as a potential replacement for harmful plastic and PVC-based nursery trays and pots. Using locally available resources and traditional knowledge, the team, led by Dr G Nagendra Prabhu, associate professor and principal investigator of the Centre for Research on Aquatic Resources at the college, has developed eco-friendly nursery/seed germination pots on World Earth Day.

District Collector A Alexander launched the products on Thursday. The student start-up venture 'EichhoTech' based at the college, comprising Anoopkumar V, Hareekrishna, Arya S, Nivedita Prabhu and Lakshmi K Babu, could recently secure financial assistance from the state government under the Young Innovators Programme of Kerala Development, Innovation and Strategic Council (KDISC), for their work on value addition of aquatic weeds like water hyacinth.

The team developed the new products using locally available leaves such as coconut palm leaf, leaves of jack fruit tree and wild jack, arecanut palm fronds as well as pulp from water hyacinth for the preparation of eco-friendly pots. These can be produced by unskilled workers and children and has a huge market in the country and abroad due to the increased demand for green products. The team had earlier developed many award-winning innovative solutions for the value addition of aquatic weeds infesting the water bodies of Alappuzha especially Kuttanad, said Nagendra Prabhu.