NEW DELHI, November 7: The Indian textile industry favours a reduction in the number of cotton varieties grown in the country and prefers immediate withdrawal of a few varieties, a feedback received by a leading cotton research institute says.

`Almost unanimous opinion has been expressed against excessive number of varieties under cultivation in the country', the research by the Central Institute of Research for Cotton (Circot) says.

Over 60 varieties of cotton are grown in the country with the top 12 strains accounting for 70 per cent of the cotton grown and the top 25 accounting for 90 per cent of the total production, says Circot director KR Krishna Iyer while giving details of the feedback in the recent issue of `Indian Textiles Journal'.

The industry feels that existence of many varieties causes mixing of cotton both fradulently and inadvertently, mixing of seeds leading in erosion of `varietal' purity, difficulty in cotton marketing and confusion among mills in choosing varieties for spinning different count of yarns.

`Though it would be difficult at present to prescribe any limit for number of varieties, a think tank must be constituted to come out with clear proposals on varietal denotification', Iyer said.

The Circot director says almost all respondents have observed that technological properties of many varieties have deteriorated and older varieties were showing higher deterioration characterised by reduction in fibre length, changed micronaire value and reduced strength.

Due to this, the survey revealed that there has been a significant fall in spinnable count in varieties like Digvijay, Ira 54166, H-4, S-6, MCU-5, NHH-44, DCH-32, MECH-1 and Suvin, he says.

The possible causes for deterioration are mixing of seeds, use of uncertified seeds and growing of cotton in location unsuitable for the variety.

`An objective study is needed for a survey of all commercial cottons in respect of fibre properties and spinning performances every year so that such deterioration can be closely watched' Iyer says.

Saying that the performance of cotton in different locations and environment needed to be monitored to ascertain if significant aberration in fibre quality occurred when they were cultivated in different states, he pointed out that some mills found variation in fibre quality from each location to be large.

Other aspects affecting cotton use by mills were fibre quality deterioration, trash problems, presence of seed coat fragments and stickiness.

Calling for objective grading of cotton, Iyer says that commercial grading of cotton in the country is based on visual examination of fibre length, trash content, colour and ginning preparation.

For any grade, the prices are fixed on the basis of the visual assessment.With advent of machines for rapid and accurate measurement of fibre properties, there is increasing realisation that a system of assessing commercial grade and commercial value for ginned cotton could be evolved, Iyer says.

The feedback from textile mills has revealed that they prefer instrumental grading and the action plan for such a thing should comprise identification of essential fibre quality characters, prioritisation of weightage for each property and definition of a single quality index that would reflect true commercial value of cotton. The survey has revealed that the textile industry has strong opinion on what breeding researchers here should strive to achieve, Iyer says.

Reduction in varieties grown, arresting fibre quality deterioration in established cotton, breeding specifically for high strength and elongation, identifying causes for fibre immaturity are some of the problems to be addressed by breeders, he adds.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.