Polyacrylamides: Demonstrating their potential benefits for agriculture

Abstract

Polyacrylamides (PAM) are synthetic products capable of improving soil physical properties. During the past three decades, they have been used in many countries as soil conditioners. In Australian cotton fields, PAM has been identified as a potentially useful tool in preventing soil erosion and reducing off-farm movement of chemicals during irrigation. Improved irrigation efficiency of flood irrigated cropping under PAM treatment in northern Australia has been reported. Improved seedling emergence of irrigated perennial pasture was observed due to PAM treatment of the soil. Since 1998, a series of experiments have been conducted at Charles Sturt University (CSU) to assess the potential benefits of PAM to Australian agriculture, and this article reports some of the major findings of these studies.