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‘Make farmers aware about BIS, they willbring clean, contamination-free cotton

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September 03, 2023 The ministry of textile last week put off its proposed implementation of the quality control order for cotton bales by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The move came after Vidarbha ginners opposed the BIS rating on cotton as there are many variations in the quality of the cash crop beside other factors in this region. Variations in the variety of seeds available to farmers, climatic conditions, pest infestation, poor picking practices, poor handling, storage and multiple pickings round the year were some fears of ginners. While the government plans to bring BIS for cotton from next August, ginners are demanding revocation of the order. Cotton advisor Govind Wairale said that implementation of BIS on cotton without proper awareness among farmers will be difficult. Wairale, a retired general manager of Maharashtra Cotton Federation and a recipient of the Vice-President’s award for his achievement in the field of cotton in 2022, says the next one year can be utilized in preparing all stakeholders for BIS. Wairale, who is heading the Agro Plus Foundation, Nagpur, a trust working for cotton farmers, is also the coordinator for the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, Cotton Development and Research Association. He spoke to TOI on the various issues related to cotton farmers.
Excerpts from an interview…
Q. Can you explain the BIS parameters for cotton?
A. The quality order stresses on specified staple length, trash percent, moisture content, micronair (softness), specific packing of cotton bales, specific weight per bale, packing material, sampling, marking, grade of cotton, staple wise group — bifurcation of specific quality standards like extra-long staple, long staple, medium and short staple, etc. As per the BIS norms, ginners will have to certify their cotton quality, name of variety, bale serial number, dimension, weight, number of bales, declaration on average strength, micronair value, crop year and country. Two bales for each 100 bales need to be sampled for testing and the report has to be uploaded.

Q. How did the move on BIS come about?
The ministry of textile last week put off its proposed implementation of the quality control order for cotton bales by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The move came after Vidarbha ginners opposed the BIS rating on cotton as there are many variations in the quality of the cash crop beside other factors in this region. Variations in the variety of seeds available to farmers, climatic conditions, pest infestation, poor picking practices, poor handling, storage and multiple pickings round the year were some fears of ginners. While the government plans to bring BIS for cotton from next August, ginners are demanding revocation of the order. Cotton advisor Govind Wairale said that implementation of BIS on cotton without proper awareness among farmers will be difficult. Wairale, a retired general manager of Maharashtra Cotton Federation and a recipient of the Vice-President’s award for his achievement in the field of cotton in 2022, says the next one year can be utilized in preparing all stakeholders for BIS. Wairale, who is heading the Agro Plus Foundation, Nagpur, a trust working for cotton farmers, is also the coordinator for the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, Cotton Development and Research Association. He spoke to TOI on the various issues related to cotton farmers.

Q. Can you explain the BIS parameters for cotton?
A. The quality order stresses on specified staple length, trash percent, moisture content, micronair (softness), specific packing of cotton bales, specific weight per bale, packing material, sampling, marking, grade of cotton, staple wise group — bifurcation of specific quality standards like extra-long staple, long staple, medium and short staple, etc. As per the BIS norms, ginners will have to certify their cotton quality, name of variety, bale serial number, dimension, weight, number of bales, declaration on average strength, micronair value, crop year and country. Two bales for each 100 bales need to be sampled for testing and the report has to be uploaded.

Q. How did the move on BIS come about?
A. The government believes it is useful for building a brand of Indian cotton, its standardization, increasing cotton export, and getting good and consistent quality for textile mills. During its journey from farm to factory, cotton is first converted into lint and seed. Then, lint is converted into yarn/thread. It is then processed into cloth followed by garments. Trash, inferior quality, contamination like plastic papers, cotton plant particles, paper, cloth pieces, plastic or gutka pouches, soil particles are finding their way in cotton. It becomes difficult to process such cotton in textile mills. It also faces hurdles in shipment due to inferior quality. Indian cotton has more trash and other contamination as compared to imported ones.

Q. Is there any other way of quality control instead of BIS?
A. Earlier, the government implemented schemes to modernize ginning/pressing factories and agriculture produce market committees (APMCs). APMCs received up to 60% subsidies on expenses to ensure incoming cotton was not contaminated. The auction sheds and cement platforms were financed. Ginning and pressing factories were developed under mini-mission II. Star ratings were given as per infrastructure of modern ginning and pressing factories. These measures made a difference in quality control. But most modern ginning factories are not getting better incentives from textile mills for good quality cotton bales. Thus, many ginning and pressing factories are shying away from using their modern equipment. Some positive changes in processing of cotton were seen but they were not up to the mark to develop the quality of the Indian cotton.

Q. What should stakeholders do now?
A. Farmers are mostly unaware of the whole issue. Ginning and pressing factories were at the forefront of opposing the BIS norms. Their main objection is that it will be difficult to implement the norms immediately without proper awareness among all stakeholders. By next year, the government must create awareness among farmers and ginners about BIS implementation. Moisture content is an important parameter of BIS. It has been set at 8%. This should be explained to farmers so that they dry their produce before bringing it for sale. But it will be very difficult for farmers to bring cotton below 8% moisture at the start of the season i.e., from the second week of October.

Q. Ginners say farmers too will be at a loss.
A. In the first picking of cotton, moisture content is up to 12-13%, or sometimes even 15%. Because of Diwali, farmers are under compulsion to sell their cotton. If such a parameter is imposed, ginners will not purchase cotton and farmers will be in trouble. Previously, the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) was buying cotton with moisture up to 12%, but after deduction of the amount for additional moisture beyond 8%. So, if a farmer was getting Rs10,000 for one quintal, then Rs400 was deducted for 4% moisture. We don’t know what policy CCI will follow this year. The BIS formalities will incur at least Rs500 per sample testing.

Q. What are your suggestions?
A. A moisture metre should be provided to all cotton growing villages so that they can check the percentage before selling it. Prices should be decided based on the quality parameter, mainly lint percentage. To test the lint percentage, every APMC should install two or three model gins so that cotton can be tested within five minutes. Agro Plus Foundation and Circot had facilitated a ginning machine to check the lint percentage at Hinganghat APMC in 2019. It is still being utilized. The agriculture department, NGOs, experts, agriculture scientists, Circot and Confederation of Indian Textile Industry must be deployed in a mission mode to create awareness among farmers about BIS parameters so that they produce clean and contamination-free cotton.

Q. What steps should ginners take if BIS is implemented?
A. Ginners, who have modernized their factories, should utilize equipment to ensure they match BIS norms. The government should introduce another technology mission on cotton and give subsidies for installation of laboratories to test quality parameters of cotton at factories. Through this mission, the government needs to spend funds on farmer awareness, picking, storage to transport up to arrival at the cotton shed. APMCs should install model gins and equipment to test cotton brought by farmers. As textile mills are at an advantage because of BIS norms, the purchaser should pay incentives to ginning or the cotton seller for better quality which is above the prescribed norms of BIS. This is not mentioned in BIS as of now. If there is a penalty, there should be an incentive too. However, the government must reconsider the penalty and punishment for breach of BIS norms.

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