The cotton stakeholders across the textile value chain have been demanding reintroduction of the Technology Mission on Cotton in a revised format with two mini missions focusing on technology development and technology transfer under the Ministry of Agriculture and another two mini missions focusing on clean cotton and branding Indian cotton textile products.
The Technology Mission on Cotton announced in 1999 and got closed in 2012 had made India the largest cotton producer and net exporter in the world. Cotton has been an engine of growth for the predominantly cotton-based textile industry in the country that provides employment to over 105 million people, including over 20 million cotton farmers. The Ministry of Textiles has already submitted a proposal to allocate funds to implement clean cotton and branding Indian cotton textile products missions.
The poor ginning practices indulged in by ginners make Indian cotton varieties come under the list of top 10 highly contaminated and seed coat (trash) content in the world as per the Annual Cotton Contamination Survey conducted by the International Textile Manufacturers’ Federation (ITMF). The spinning sector and the farmers have been suffering in the last few years as some of the ginners were mixing cotton waste in virgin cotton, producing cotton with high trash content and adding water to increase the lint weight, thus affecting the value realization and quality of the final products.
In a press release, Mr. P. Nataraj, Chairman, Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA), has stated that the Association has sent a representation to the Union Textile Minister seeking her intervention by empowering the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to enforce certain regulations to curb the malpractices resorted to by certain ginners. He has appreciated the efforts taken by the Minister and CMD, CCI, for enforcing the quality norms, especially for the gin-out ratio, trash content, moisture content, weight loss, etc., apart from the regular quality parameters like staple length and micronaire value.
Mr. Nataraj has stated that the cotton waste price trend as during the last few years indicates that its price steeply increased from the beginning of the cotton season as the ginners procure waste cotton for adulteration. Such practices increase the short fibre content, affecting the value realization, productivity and quality of the yarn.
He has proposed the following measures to make the Indian cotton world class in terms of quality and thereby help cotton farmers and the industry to achieve sustained growth:
- Empower the Textile Commissioner, the Secretary, Textiles Committee, the Director, TRAs, CIRCOT, and CMD of CCI to make periodical inspection in ginning factories and take necessary action on the factories resorting to malpractices. Chronic ginning factories may be black-listed and the details posted on the CCI website.
- Make the Textiles Committee to have periodical audits and recognize three to five-star rated ginning factories by posting the details on the CCI website.
- Empower CCI to introduce the 16-digit RFID code for individual bale quality parameters on par with USDA that practises the same since 1991. CCI could take the help of the Textiles Committee, Textile Research Associations and CIRCOT for RFID certification. These organizations could outsource cotton testing facilities from the industry and the educational institutions wherever necessary. This system could be started with five-star rated ginning factories. This would considerably enhance the value addition and increase the income and profit for all the stakeholders.
• MoT may expedite fund allocation to create HVI cotton testing facilities at all the major cotton centres as already recommended by the Cotton Advisory Board.