Ask any cotton farmer and he will tell you that there is no market for desi cotton that comes in many varieties, including Kurunganni from Tamil Nadu, Pondru from Andhra Pradesh, Magad and Kaala from Gujarat, Jayadhar and Pandharapur from Karnataka.
L. Malathi, wife of a farmer from Nagapattinam district, recalls how they switched to other crops after desi cotton failed to fetch them good price.
“It took a lot of time to pluck the cotton. Sometimes, if it looked like it would rain and the promised farm hands did not turn up, my husband and I had to pluck the cotton ourselves. And we didn’t get a good price for the work we put in,” she said.
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This is the voice of most of the desi cotton farmers. But organisations such as Tula, Sahaja Samrudha and Simcodess have come together to revive desi cotton varieties.
“The plants withstand all kinds of weather and can even give two harvests. They are pest resistant when compared to the variety being used now. The biggest advantage is that a farmer can pick seeds off the cotton and keep them for the next year,” said G.F. Visuvasam, a farmer from Dindigul.
Ananthoo of Tula, which makes kurthas and shirts from desi cotton, has invested Rs. 15 lakh collected from 15 persons to support farmers. He said the idea was to invest in small groups of farmers so that local economy is revived.
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“By investing in farmers, we want local weavers, dyers and tailors too to get jobs. If we find buyers for our clothes and people don’t grudge paying little extra, the farmers can be supported,” he said.
Recently, a small meeting of desi cotton farmers and buyers, including those who run knitting units and bag makers at Gandhigram University, was held. As a result, farmers have found buyers.
Krishnan Subramanian of Manjapai, a Madurai-based unit that makes cotton bags as an alternative to plastic bags, said he was interested in encouraging desi cotton farmers. “Two years down the line, we want to manufacture using only desi cotton. Right now we have only made a few samples as we are waiting for the cloth from a knitting unit. If we manufacture one lakh bags a month, we can support more farmers,” he said.
Support from the government is almost nil for these farmers. “The desi seed has been denotified, making things more difficult for the farmers. They don’t get loans. There is also very minimal support from the government,” said Mr. Visuvasam.
Organisation has invested Rs. 15 lakh collected from 15 persons to support farmers