'Suraj (CCH.510-4)' - A New Long Staple High Yielding Cotton Variety

摘要

Cotton, the "White Gold" is cultivated in different agro-climatic conditions in India mainly for its fibre, which constitute about 62 per cent of the raw material requirement of Indian textile industry. The Indian cotton crop is the most diverse in the world, both in terms of botanical status and fibre quality range. The world today has suddenly turned its attention towards the natural fibres that are environment friendly and biodegradable. It is important to note here that the research and technology initiatives, safe cultivation practices and their on-farm demonstrations on a large scale have resulted in increase in cotton yield. The cotton production (313 lakh bales) and the productivity (560 kg/ha) in 2007-08 bears testimony for this. The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has projected the requirement of cotton at 350 lakh bales by 2010 of which nearly 1/ 3 will be in long staple category of 27.5 mm to 32 mm (Sreenivasan and Venkatakrishnan, 2007).