|
Introduction
- Marketing of cotton is a specialised activity
by itself involving handling, packing movement
of cotton bales, grading, quality tests and problems
of payment. As compared to other commercial crops,
the cotton has to pass through multiple number
of intermediary agencies, as cotton has to traverse
through a long route before reaching the end user.
- The marketing of cotton commences from the close
of harvesting of kappas and ends after the lint
is procured by the millers. Between these two
points, cotton passes through several stages,
namely, sale of kappas in primary and secondary
markets, ginning and processing, storage, transport
to terminal markets and sale of lint to the consuming
mills.
Primary Market
- In primary markets kappas is sold by the grower
to the village merchant without the intervention
of any intermediaries.
Secondary Market
- A majority of the growers now disposing of kappas
in the secondary markets, i.e. important trade
centers.
- In the secondary wholesale markets, the business
is conducted in accordance with local customs
and practices.
- In centers where regulated markets have been
established, bylaws framed by the market committee
and approved by the State Governments govern the
transactions.
- Open auction system for each individual seller's
produce is generally followed in most of the secondary
markets.
Terminal Market
- Cotton lint is sold to the textile mills, exporters
and traders dealing with consuming mills or engaged
in inter-state trade.
- Bombay, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad and Kanpur are
some of the important terminal markets of which
Bombay is the largest.
- The sellers either directly or through the brokers
approach the buyers with samples of cotton and
enter into transactions.
|
 Top
|
Systems of Marketing
- Cotton has to reach the spinning mill through ginning
mill passing through commission agents and wholesaler.
- The farmers normally bring his produce to the nearest
market by cart, truck or by other means after packing
it in the form of bale.
- Based on the grades so decided, the cotton lots are
put to public auction, wherein, the commission agents
or wholesalers participate.
- The Commission agents do all the works in handling
the kappas on behalf of the farmer and arrange to sell
it either in presence or absence of the farmer.
- Storage space, arrangement of auction, inviting tenders,
announcement of market rates and market information
are managed by the market committee.
- The market committee collects market cess for its
services and commission agent charges his commission.
- The farmer gets the value of his produce after all
these deductions.
- The wholesaler normally transports the cotton to Bombay
or arranges to gin it locally and sell the lint to spinning
mills.
- With the establishment of number of ginning/spinning
mills in private and cooperative sector at many taluks
and districts, the bulk movement of kappas and lint
to weaving mills located at Bombay and Surat is reduced
in recent years.
- The lint/kappas is mostly consumed locally and surplus
lint may reach distant spinning mills.
|
Top
|
Problems of Marketing
Problems of Packing and Handling
- The kappas is packed conventionally in loosely knit
bag of Deccan hemp or Manila hemp fibres. The empty bag
of hemp, specially knit for this purpose is called "bardan".
The bag is flexible and can hold a varying quality of
150 to 230 kg kappas. Packing the seed cotton (kappas)
in bardan to make it what is called as bale has resulted
into many problems. They are:
Difficulties in Packing
the Kappas
- Age old system of packing the kappas in bardan involves
hanging of loosely knit hemp bag from the top of the roof
and pouring the kappas layer by layer with intermittent
application of pressure by legs. This involves a lot of
labour time. As the bale is packed manually, the quantity
of kappas held in a bale is directly proportional to the
pressure applied. Approximately two labours can pack 6-8
cotton bales in 8 hours. A cotton farmer producing about
80-90 quintals of cotton from 8-10 acres hybrid cotton,
should be able to pack about 60 bales requiring 20-22
mandays.
Exposure of kappas to Dust,
Rain
- Conventionally packed cotton bale is exposed to dust,
rain, heat or dirt of many forms during its handling,
storage and marketing. This results into the loss of quality
of fibres at all these stages. Ultimately, the farmer
is put to great loss in terms of reduced quality of the
fibres.
Difficulties in Standardisation
- A cotton bale is likely to weigh any thing between 150
to 230 kg. Depending upon the skill and body weight of
the labourer at the time of packing, the quantity of kappas
held in each bale changes.
|
Top
|
Quality Parameters
- Fabric quality is mostly governed by that of the
yarn from which it is woven, and since the quality
of the yarn in turn depends upon the properties of
the fibers from which it is spun. The quality of raw
cotton which is generally judged from the physical
characteristics of the fibre is an important factor.
- Cotton possesses many qualities to make it a good
textile fibre. Its dominant position as a textile
raw material is primarily due to its versatility for
a wide range of end-uses it can be put to.
Staple length
- Average length of individual cotton fibre. Longer
the staple - better the quantity.
- Short staple : 19.5mm and below
- Medium staple : 20.0mm - 21.5mm
- Superior staple : 22.0mm - 24.0mm
- Long staple : 24.5mm - 26.5mm
- Superior long staple : 27.0mm - 29.5mm
- Extra superior long staple : 30.0mm and above
Ginning Percentage
- Out turn of lint to seed cotton expressed as percentage
by weight normally varies between 24 - 38%.
- GP %= Weight of lint/Weight of seed cotton x 100
Spinning Quality
- Depends on staple length, fineness and strength
of fibre Expressed in counts. Count is the no. of
hanks (one hank = 840yds) found in one pound of yarn.
Fineness
- Related to staple length
- Expression of the weight per unit length of fibre
- Influenced by soil
Colour
- Varies from reddish tint to bright shining white
Brighter the colour - better the quality
Touch
- Coarseness or finess of lint to touch
Cleanliness
- Lint should be free from impurities.
Neppiness
- Defect of yarn due to tiny knots
- No uniformity in the thread
- Yarn is weak
Fibre maturity
- A sample of lint corrected at maturity is of 3 types:
- Mature (ripe)
- Half mature (Half ripe)
- Un mature (Un ripe)
- Ripe fibres have thickened walls and good convulsion
(twist)
- Un ripe fibres have thin walls lakh of twist and
weak, with a tendency to break up during manufacture.
Strength of fibre
- Estimated by means of a fibre-testing machine by
clasping the ends of a single fibre between the jaws
of machine and applying the strain gradually. The
breaking strength of fibre depends upon its area of
cross-section, test length, type of testing instrument
used, the rate of loading etc., It also depends upon
the relative humidity of the atmosphere. The tensile
strength of fibre varies for 50,000 to 1,25,000 pounds
per square inch. Fine cottons tend to have greater
tensile strength than the short and coarse cottons.
Convolutions (Twists)
- The uniform distribution of the convolutions helps
to give better inter- fibre grippage. Convolutions
confer the following additional advantages
- Make the fibre equally flexible in all directions.
- Prevent close packing of fibres in yarn and hence
give better cover in cloth.
- As the frictional contact of adjacent fibres is
reduced, it lessens the risk of electrification, if
any.
- The number of convolutions depends on the ratio
of cell-wall thickness to ribbon width.
- The number of convolutions per inch varies from
about 150 for Indian cottons to about 300 for Sea
Island cottons.
Surface Friction
- The spinning quality of a textile fibre depends
not only on its staple length and fineness, but also
in its ability to offer sufficient frictional resistance.
The effectiveness of friction depends upon the nature
of the fibre surface and normal pressure between fibres
due to twist.
Hygroscopicity
- Cotton absorbs moisture from the surrounding atmosphere
depending on its temperature and relative humidity.
Moisture had a marked effect on the tensile strength,
elasticity and other properties of the fibre.
Rigidity
- In processing cotton, the fibres have to be twisted
to make a yarn. The more rigid a fibre is, the greater
is the force required to twist it and vice versa.
Modules of rigidity is defined as the ratio of the
tangential force per unit area to the angle of twist
produced. It depends upon the shape of cross section
and the wall thickness of the fibre.
- Temperature and relative humidity have a great influence
on fibre rigidity. At room temperature, the rigidity
of cotton fibre is six times that in an atmosphere
saturated with moisture.
Elasticity
- Changes in length and volume as well as shears or
twists produced by applied stresses are all included
in the elastic properties. Cotton fibres are fairly
elastic, though they exhibit both the primary creep
and the secondary creep to some degree.
Plasticity
- Cotton is relatively non- plastic. Finishing process
like shrinking depend on the increase in the plasticity
of cotton fibres as they swell in water at elevated
temperatures.
Cotton quality requirements Count-wise
Pattern of Yarn Production
- The main trends observed from data given.
- Yarn production in coarse counts (1s to 10s) has
come down during recent years.
- The production in fine and superfine counts (41s
and above) has increased during the years.
- The production in the 31s' - 40s' count range has
also increased during recent years.
- The bulk of yarn production of about 71% comprises
of counts in the range of 11s to 40s.
- The above trends indicate that while attention has
to be given for producing cottons suitable for finer
counts, greater efforts have to be made to produce
cottons suitable for the count ranges of 11s to 40s.
Blending with Man-Made Fibres
- Although the preference for cotton in apparel fabrics
is increasing as against fabrics made from purely
synthetic fibres, the use of blends of cotton and
synthetic fibres is expected to continue for various
reasons. The proportion of blended yarns has increased
to 13% in recent years.
- Prior to 1975, imported cottons from Egypt, Sudan,
etc., were used for blending with polyester. Research
work in CIRCOT showed that superior quality cottons
developed in our country like MCU 5, Sujatha, Suvin,
Hybrid 4, Varalaxmi, DCH 32, etc. are quite useful
for blending. Our cottons, however, need improvement
in respect of fibre maturity and trash content. Cottons
used for blending should have good fibre strength
and extensibility.
Deficiencies in fibre quality
- There are a few important deficiencies that add
to lowering the quality of our cottons. We have to
pay special attention to eliminate/minimise them so
that the general quality of our cotton improves.
Variability in Fibre Quality
- A frequent complaint both from Indian and foreign
users of our cottons is about the variability in quality
observed even in the same lot of cotton. Leaving aside
the factors such as admixture of seeds in cultivation
and mixing up of varieties at marketing centers or
at ginning factories, there are other genuine reasons
like suitability of land/soil for the variety, level
of crop management and attention paid to crops by
different farmers, etc., which contribute to variability
in quality of cottons.
- Some zoning system along with supply of good quality
seeds and other inputs may have to be considered at
least for superior quality varieties and hybrids like
MCU 5, Hybrid 4, Hybrid 6, DCH 32 etc,
Fibre Strength for OE Spinning open end
- As has been stated earlier, fibre strength plays
a very important role in deciding the yarn quality
in OE spinning system. Since our spinning industry
is being modernised more rapidly at present by installing
OE systems, we have to keep in mind the special requirement
of fibre strength and orient our research programmes
accordingly.
Fibre Immaturity
- Many of the long extra long staple cottons, particularly
interspecific hybrids, contain a high proportion of
immature fibres. This mars the yarn quality, appearance
and also leads to problems in dyeing. It is therefore
desirable that cottons have 75% - 80% mature fibres.
Ideally, we should aim at 80% mature fibres in our
selection programmes.
Stickiness in cotton
- The presence of 'honey dew' in cotton (secretion
by sucking pests like aphid, whitefly, etc.,) results
in stickiness on account of which severe problems
are faced in ginning and subsequent spinning as the
fibres stick to the rollers in these machines. Further,
the honeydew sometimes leads to black coloured mould
formation resulting in loss of quality.
Motes
- Motes or undeveloped seeds with immature fibres
constitute another source adding to lowering of yarn
quality. The problem is encountered more in hybrid
cottons. Although some of them are removed during
processing, quite a few escape and enter the yarn
and give rise to objectionable faults. Such faults
in yarn have to be removed first by a separate process
before producing quality fabrics on modern, high-speed
knitting or weaving machines, which add to the cost
of production. Therefore, this problem has to be kept
in mind while selecting parents for evolving hybrid
cottons.
Trash, Other Contaminants and Seed Coat
Bits
- The average trash content in Indian cottons is about
6% - 7%, which is very high as compared to that in
cottons from other countries in the world. It varies
from as low as 2% in suvin and MCU 5 to as high as
18% in Wagad, V 797 etc., from saurashtra (India).
Besides trash from plant origin, several extraneous
materials contaminate our cottons.
- In our country cotton is harvested by hand picking
and as such there is no justification absolutely for
high trash content- care is necessary for general
cleanliness at all levels starting from picking, storage,
transport to market, storage at marketing centre till
ginning.
|
|
