COIMBATORE: If a recent concept paper submitted by the Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology is taken to its logical conclusion, cotton fibre and all other by products from a cotton plant - stalk and seed - can be value added and provide employment opportunities in rural areas.

The institute director, S. Srinivasan, told The Hindu over telephone that it submitted the concept paper to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research recently. Various technologies that were developed by the research institutes to add value to cotton could be implemented at the field level as a pilot project.

It would be tried out on one variety of extra long staple cotton and one more of medium or long staple cotton.

"It is in a preliminary stage and a decision was expected in a month or two," he said.

The proposal was for more value addition to cotton fibre, stalk and seed.

Since quality and competitiveness were important in cotton fibre, the institute proposed marking of cotton bales based on the fibre quality.

It planned to involve textile mills and use cotton yarn in handlooms (with natural dyes) and knitted fabric (with bio-scouring).

The proposal also included trying to use cotton plant stalk to make particle boards and extract oil from cotton seeds. The stalk could also be used to generate energy.

The project, which was likely to go on for about five years, envisaged involvement of a number of partners.

"It is a comprehensive project to demonstrate that an agricultural product can be used for value addition and offer entrepreneurship in rural areas," he said.

The project looked at strengthening some of the weak links in the chain of value addition for cotton.

Total cost

The concept paper was submitted for inclusion in the National Agriculture Innovation Project, which was World Bank funded. The total cost of Rs. 20 crore would come from the project.

The private partners would provide the infrastructure, he said.

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