Cotton Development and Research Association (CDRA) of Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has launched kapas (cotton) plucking machine for farmers that is expected to overcome the problem of labour shortage and bring down production costs.
The battery-powered, portable, handheld machine has been designed by Point Industries.Cotton Development and Research Association (CDRA) of Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA) has launched kapas (cotton) plucking machine for farmer#
The machine has been priced at Rs 9,900, SIMA CDRA Chairman CK Narayanasaami said. He said the association has been making attempts to manufacture cotton picking machine to suit Indian cotton crop condition to bring down the cost for the farmers in view of a serious labour shortage.
The machine comes with a cotton collection bag. With manual picking, a farm worker will be able to pick 13 kg to 15 kg of cotton a day.
With the machine, a farmer can reduce his costs to less than seven per cent of the cotton’s price from the 35 per cent if he pays a labourer Rs 250 as daily wage.
The association had appealed to the Tamil Nadu government to reduce VAT on the machine to five per cent from the current 14.5 per cent. (SH)
Fibre2fashion News Desk – India