Cotton cultivation to boost grower's income

03 Dec '05

3 min read

Being a village-based activity, it is ideal for a Farmers' cooperative to establish a small particle board factory with an investment around Rs 2.5 crore, which could generate additional rural employment. He also added that banks like Nabard and other rural establishments would be inclined to part-finance this endeavour.

The cost and profitability of particle board from cotton stalk has worked out production capacity of 5 tonne per day about 180 boards of 8'x4'x12mm. This can be done with one shift for eight hours, he said, adding it has also been calculated that the return on investment on such particle board factory is about 34%.

Some of the applications of the cotton stalk particle boards include wall panelling, window panelling insert, table top, doors and furniture, false ceiling, roof panelling, portioning, insulating material and industrial and domestic floorings.

Currently, marginal farmers in southern parts of India use part of the stalks as domestic fuel and rest is burnt either in the field itself or in a centralised place. A part is also used for baking bricks.

The cotton stalks availability in the country are like in Andhra Pradesh (20.48 lakh tonne), Gujarat (40.94 lakh tonne), Maharashtra (80.33 lakh tonne), and Madhya Pradesh (10.76 lakh tonne) and few more lakh tonnes in other states.

The Economics Times

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