Absence of affordable technology that can turn indigenous cotton into textile is one of the main reasons for cotton farmers’ suicide in the country, said Uzramma, a noted exponent of the handloom industry.
Specific variant
Delivering a talk on handmade fabrics and process organised at Jiddu Krishnamurti Centre here on Saturday, Ms. Uzramma said farmers are forced to grow only a specific variant of cotton suited for spinning mills. Indigenous varieties of cotton that had earned India the reputation of a cotton-producing nation in the past are all but gone, she said.
“The technology used today for cotton spinning has nothing to do with the technology that was used before the industrial revolution in India. The finest cotton of the time is not strong enough for the machine process which needs only one type of cotton. As a result, many variants of cotton went extinct in the country,” Ms. Uzramma said.
She explained that the cotton grown today is not best suited for Indian conditions.
Indian variants in the past were rain-fed and not dependent on irrigation, besides being grown interspersed with other food crops.
When current generation of crops fail after farmers make big investments on buying seeds and irrigation, they are driven to suicide.
Uzramma, a noted exponent of handloom industry, supports decentralisation of cotton textile production chain to benefit farmers
