The Hindu Business Line : Super Spinning plans foray into organic cotton cultivation

The textile enterprise has chosen the tribal farm tracts in Orissa's Kalahandi district and the interior tribal farming clusters in the Chinna Kalrayan Hill range nestled on the Salem-Villupuram borders in Tamil Nadu. The company hopes to secure by next year, declaration from the international certification agencies for organic cotton for authentication of standards for cotton farms developed under the programme.

Both these locations have been chosen, according to the SSML officials, for either their very low level or near absence of inorganic farming activity in the vicinity and also for the sparse usage of chemical nutrients by farmers in the respective zones.

The scope to promote inter-crop or rotational crops along with the cotton crop, an important practice insisted upon by auditors of the clean cotton technology in areas meant for raising organic cotton is also possible in these two places.

In the tribal clusters of Chinna Kalrayan hills, for example, SSML has identified about 407 acres (from 19 tribal villages) of various crops to be brought under organic cultivation in phase one this year in which it has already helped farmers to sow `Surabhi' cotton strain on about 153 acres by setting in motion the organic cultivation regime.

The regime will compel farmers to switch from mono-cropping practised till now to rotational crops of cotton, sesame or pulses. These farmers, for over a long period, were cultivating only tapioca (cassava), which gradually kept pulling down their yield and prices.

The first batch of 170 farmers brought under organic cotton in the Chinna Kalrayan hills were offered inputs including seeds by SSML for sowing in September and harvest is likely in January. SSML will buyback the entire organic cotton from farmers on a premium over the prevailing market price.

In Orissa, SSML will cover about 2000 acres for organic cotton farming involving 622 tribal farmers where the company has also tied up with the State Government and the Cotton Corporation of India, according to Mr B. Venkatesan, senior Manager, Marketing, SSML.

This year it has gone about promoting organic cotton in 978 areas in Orissa, besides those in Kalrayan Hills under `in-conversion' basis.

Cultivation

SSML, with the strength of being an integrated textile producing company having in-house expertise in cotton cultivation, ginning, spinning, knitting and garmenting, has become one of the two integrated textile companies in India to get into organic cotton cultivation.

According to Mr Xavier, head, farming division of SSML, his company in about three years would be able to bring in about 5000 hectares out of the 15000 ha of arable lands in the Kalrayan hill tracts under organic cotton. Going by the richness in the organic matter naturally existing in the lands and the natural barriers available against chemical contamination in the region, SSML hopes to get the certification from Skal International (Control Union World), the international certification agency for organic cotton for its direct cotton field activity by next year itself.

Certification

SSML currently holds certification from Skal International approving its standards (meant for sustainable textile production) followed in spinning, knitting, processing and garmenting for the organic cotton part. Once it successfully meets the internal control system standards for organic cotton farming, the company will go for Skal certification for direct organic farming as well. SSML's usage of organic cotton for various products during 2005-06 accounts for about 1110 tonnes or about 11 per cent of the country's organic cotton production of 9,800 tonnes.

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