The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Cultivation of colour cotton can end pollution by dyeing units

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Wednesday, Jun 08, 2011
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Cultivation of colour cotton can end pollution by dyeing units

Staff Reporter

TNAU to take up breeding of viable varieties of colour cotton

Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University P. Murugesa Boopathi speaking at a workshop on cotton and sericulture at the university in Coimbatore.

COIMBATORE: Cultivation of colour cotton is a good alternative to solve pollution problems caused by dyeing, said Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University P. Murugesa Boopathi here recently.

He said the university would take up breeding of viable varieties of colour cotton. But its success depended on farmers getting adequately compensated for their extra efforts, he added.

He was inaugurating a research workshop on “Cotton and Sericulture” at the university.

“Cotton is a labour-intensive crop. Agriculture engineers need to develop improved machinery for land preparation, seeding, weeding, spraying of plant protection chemicals and cotton picking, to decrease production costs to farmers,” he said.

Mr. Boopathi said the timely intervention of TNAU by multiplying parasitoids and releasing them in farmers' fields was responsible in saving the sericulture industry which was on the verge of being wiped out.

Pesticides worth Rs. 50 crore and an yield loss of Rs. 500 crore could be saved in the last six months.

V. Santhanam, former Food and Agriculture Organisation expert, said the only way to reduce the cost of cotton cultivation and increase farm income was to popularise mechanisation methods suitable for small farm holders.

“The projected demand for Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton by 2015 in India is 20 lakh bales. The targeted area coverage for ELS cotton in Tamil Nadu is estimated at 50,000 hectares. Therefore, research for breeding new hybrids with Egyptian fibre quality standards is necessary,” he said.

He pointed out that Turkey and India were the leading organic cotton producers in the world.

The varieties and hybrids available now were not suitable for organic cotton production.

M. Paramathma, Director of Research, TNAU, said the 500 demonstrations conducted in farmers' field throughout the State by the university had resulted in 15 per cent increase in yields. This was because of effectively using modern technologies of TNAU.

N. Ajjan, Director, Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development Studies, said the reduction in cotton area in the State was because of scarcity of labour and shift to maize and oilseeds cultivation.

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