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Various associations of the textile industry and industry leaders together have agreed to fund 75,000 handheld kapas Plucker machines, developed by Cotton Development & Research Association (CDRA) under Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA). Additionally, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) may be actively involved to empower cotton farmers.

This battery-operated machine reduces 70 per cent of the cotton plucking cost apart from preventing the deterioration of cotton quality.

It was decided in the third interactive meeting with the Textile Advisory Group (TAG) at New Delhi to review progress of initiatives for cotton value chain. Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal urged that Textile Industry and Industry Associations should join hands to promote and popularise mechanisation. The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) will take up this project in mission mode with distribution support from Cotton Corporation of India Ltd (CCI).

Darshana V. Jardosh, Minister of State for Textiles and Railways; Rachna Shah, Secretary Textiles; Suresh Kotak, Chairman, TAG; Senior Officials from related Ministries and cotton value chain stakeholders were also present at the meeting.

The Union Minister emphasised that the supply of good quality cotton seeds is the need of the hour and requires some concrete action from related Ministries on war footing. He desired that the industry should be on the forefront and work on the principle of self-regulation by owning the responsibility of branding and certifying Indian cotton KASTURI.

A holistic plan for increasing cotton productivity was presented by ICAR-Central Institute for Cotton Research(CICR), Nagpur for bringing improvement in cotton productivity through farmer awareness programme, HDPS and global best farm practices.

The Union Minister also stressed on strengthening testing facility needed to conform to KASTURI standards, DNA testing and traceability. He assured that adequate modern testing facilities would be created through BIS and TRAs.

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