The Hindu Business Line : Contract cotton farming helps Super Spinning Mills to reduce contamination

THE Coimbatore-based Super Spinning Mills Ltd's exposure to contract cultivation of cotton for the past three years has enabled the company to reduce contamination levels in the variety and in the fibre.

"Besides the per acre yield increase recorded, we could see a sharp decline in the level of contamination that is normally associated with the generic cotton grown in individual farms," said Mr Sumanth Ramamurthi, managing director of the SSML.

Mr Ramamurthi said the crop yield realised in the last three seasons from the farms under contract cultivation mode had increased to an average eight to 10 quintals per acre from five to six quintals normally obtained.

SSML's experiment has also revealed that the contamination level fell to less than one gram a bale from the industry average of 18 to 20 gram.

SSML has early this month formally entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Department of Agriculture, Tamil Nadu Government to buy cotton that is to be cultivated in 21,000 acres in the State during 2005-06 under the integrated cotton cultivation programme.

With its total raw cotton requirement put at 2.25 lakh bales to cater to a spindleage of 2.10 lakh annually, the company would still have to depend on raw cotton supplies from outside Tamil Nadu.

The 21,000 acres of cotton farms to be contracted by the company this year within the State would be sufficient to meet only 10 per cent of its consumption.

"We are trying to develop a brand for our contract farming because of the contamination-free nature," said Mr Ramamurthi.

Though the procurement of cotton through contract farming mode may mean bearing certain additional costs, still the company could meet its social obligation of supporting the cotton farmers who stand to save close to Rs 1,500 per acre in input costs because of the linkages being established in seed/fertiliser/distribution and farm advisory services, he added.

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