The Southern India Mills Association - Cotton Development and Research Association (SIMA-CDRA) has ventured into development and multiplication of coloured cotton seeds and is promoting cultivation of Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton.
R. Ravichandran, Director of Veejay Yarns and Fabrics, who is the newly-elected chairman of SIMA-CDRA, said the Central Government is looking at increasing production of high quality ELS cotton, organic cotton and naturally coloured cotton under the AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan Scheme.
The research team of the association is also gearing up to develop various cotton seeds to mitigate the challenges of Bt cotton, herbicide, water scarcity, etc.
Shakthi BT and SIMA Platinum, developed by the association, were certified recently and are ready for commercial multiplication. The SIMA -CDRA, the CITI-CDRA, and the Cotton Corporation of India have successfully conducted ELS cotton trials in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu and plan to expand the area.
The association has also identified farmers and areas to multiply the pure organic cotton under contract farming the next season and some of the leading textile mills have come forward to venture into the pilot project.
Further, the SIMA-CDRA has already developed brown colour and green colour cotton seeds and brown colour cotton seed is ready for commercial multiplication. Naturally coloured cotton will be organic and an ultimate solution for textile processing. The naturally coloured cotton will also be more skin friendly. With sustained physical and chemical properties, it will have tremendous market opportunities, he said.
Mr. Ravichandran appealed to the Central Government to launch the Technology Mission on Cotton 2.0 at the earliest. It will introduce several technologies to cotton cultivation and increase the yield and revenue for farmers.
G. Venkatramachandran, Managing Director of Laven Technoblend, and S.K. Sundararaman, Managing Director of Shiva Texyarn, were elected Deputy Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively for the year 2020-2021 at the annual meeting of the association held on Wednesday.
Outgoing chairman R. Elango said the SIMA-CDRA has supplied 199.925 tonnes of ELS cotton seeds to Cotton Corporation of India for distribution to farmers in Tamil Nadu through the State Agriculture Department.
The association has also entered into an agreement with the Cotton Development Organisation (CDO) and National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) of Uganda to share technical know-how in improving cotton production, farm practises, farmers’ earning, etc in Uganda and improving the gin out turn in India. This initiative is supported by International Trade Centre through its SITA Project (Supporting Indian Trade and Investment for Africa).