Iyer, director, Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology (CIRCOT) of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, told PTI here yesterday that the future research should focus on the acceptability of fabric made of `coloured cotton' and improving its colour and aesthetic value.

In fact, India could be a leading country in coloured cotton once the scientists undertook extensive research on coloured cotton crops, he claimed.

During 1996-97 about 200 bales were grown in Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh, but due to lack of interest expressed by the mill owners to buy the product, the scientists started shying away from doing further research, Iyer said adding that `this is not a healthy sign.'

In order to demonstrate the potential of these Khandwa grown coloured cotton, CIRCOT had taken up the task of testing and displaying garments for the public, Iyer said.

Under the projection of international cotton advisory committee, India should be able to produce about 1.5 to 2.00 lakh bales of eco-labelled coloured cotton in the year 2001, he said.

With more research, farmers could be encouraged to grow coloured as the `international price for coloured cotton was one- and- a- half times more than that of white cotton,' he added.

At present, a few agricultural universities, Central Institute for Cotton Research in Nagpur and Coimbatore were working on coloured cotton for their length, strength and maturity.

Iyer said, naturally coloured cotton should be grown under organic methods of farming to realise full value of eco-friendliness and should be grown isolated from white cotton to avoid contamination due to cross-pollination and seed mixing during harvesting, transport and ginning. `The consequences of contamination could be disastrous for white cotton,' Iyer said.

Historically, coloured cotton types created interest among researchers in early 20s and 50s of the present century for study of their inheritance of lint colour genes.

Asiatic brown linted cotton varieties, Cocanadas-1 and Cocanadas-2 (Kakinada) and Red Northerns (in Kurnool) were grown on commercial scale in Andhra Pradesh during the first half of the century. But due to low productivity and weak fibre, they could not be continued.

Again in the recent past, interest was revived in view of their eco-friendly characters and export potential. Coloured cotton from Andhra Pradesh was being exported to Japan.

Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.