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Industry unhappy with progress in cotton R&D

Industry urges govt to refer to SITRA study on cotton needs till 2005

Reena Mital - Mumbai

Even as mini-missions I and II of the technology mission on cotton (TMC) have shown some progress recently, the industry is unhappy that the government has still not addressed some of the pertinent issues in cotton viz, development of better quality cotton for fine counts, reduction in the cotton varieties, better productivity, contamination, etc. This is despite the fact that the industry had commissioned the South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) to conduct a study on the number of varieties, quantities, qualities that would be required within the country by 2004-05.

According to sources, despite elucidating the cotton needs of the industry, the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) has not been referring to this study, but is instead talking of what the cotton research institutes are doing. "These are not necessarily in sync with the industry’s wants," they claim.

Speaking to Express Textile, Mr B K Patodia, managing director, GTN Textiles, said, "There are as many as 150 cotton varieties in the country, which need to be brought down to 25-30. This will require a lot of R&D, and the research institutes need to be geared up for this, to meet the cotton requirements of the industry by 2004-05. R&D on these counts will take time and needs to begin at least now."

According to experts, even the most modern yarn spinners in the country are today unable to meet all the quality parameters, and this to a large extent is due to the existence of large varieties of cotton, which makes the task of selection of the right type of cottons for the desired end product difficult, and also leads to adulteration of cottons, seriously marring production of yarns of consistent quality in mills. This has also restricted production of high value and fine count cotton yarns.

According to the SITRA study, DCH 32 cotton is widely used at present to spin 80s and 100s, but this cotton has a very low micronaire value ranging from 2.5-3.2 and use of this cotton leads to yarn of inferior quality in terms of neps, imperfections and appearance. "This cotton is not suitable for fine count yarns, and there is an urgent need to develop some alternate cottons (extra long staple varieties) with micronaire value in the range of 3.4-3.6. Similarly, none of the available cottons are suitable to spin counts finer than 100s with the requisite yarn quality. For this count group also, there is need to develop appropriate cottons with 2.5 per cent span length in the range of 37-38 mm and tenacity at 32g/tex," the study states.

As per the study, in 2004-05, the yarn quality requirements are expected to be very high, particularly in terms of yarn elongation. Towards producing such yarns, fibres of high strength are required. It is therefore necessary to develop cottons with high tenacity values. Many Egyptian cottons such as Giza varieties have tenacity values in the range of 31 to 34 g/tex.

According to Mr Patodia, cotton contamination has significantly come down since the TMC began a couple of years back, and ginning and pressing factories are modernising under the scheme. However, the problem exists in mini-missions I and II, where progress has been very slow. According to experts, the reason for this is that these missions are under the ministry of agriculture and research institutes here continue to operate in isolation, and not in coordination with the industry. "Unless this changes, the Indian yarn spinners will have to make do with the inferior cottons, and will continue to supply yarns that are not in sync with the modern technologies being used the world over," they aver.