SIMA Cotton Development and Research Association (SIMA CD&RA) shared on Wednesday that Precot Limited, Coimbatore has signed a MoU with it for the production of ELS Organic Cotton cultivation.
ELS stands for Extra Long Staple Cotton, a variety of cotton that is in acute shortage in the country. While India needs around 20 lakh bales of ELS a year, it produces only 4-5 lakh bales of it, the rest are imported.
SIMA CD&RA has been producing genetically pure cotton seeds and supplying it to farmers. It has also developed a Kapas Plucker that enables farmers to double their net income besides helping them produce contamination and least trashy cotton.
Cotton Corporation of India, Ministry of Textiles and Govt of Tamil Nadu have been extending subsidies to SIMA CD&RA and the farmers during the last two years both for ELS Cotton Promotion and also for the free distribution of SIMA Kapas Plucker machine to the farmers.
Through this MoU, Precot will supply all the inputs freely to the farmers and also guarantee to procure cotton at market price. Ravichandran, Chairman, SIMA CD&RA said that the MoU has been signed for the production of ELS Organic Cotton on a pilot basis in an area of 500 acres at Semmandipatti Village, Namakkal.
Asha Rani, Secretary cum Chief Cotton Breeder, SIMA CD& RA presided this MoU exchange. Kondalswamy, Head- Raw Materials, Precot Limited, R.Baskar, Assistant Manager, Marketing Division, Pest Control India Pvt Ltd, Salem took part in the event.