At present there are 4000 ginning and pressing factories in the country including about 500 composite units. These factories are spread over through the length and breadth of the country in all the cotton growing States. The glnnlug process in India is of two types i.e. Roller Ginning and Saw Ginning. In the Northern States of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, most of the staple cotton is processed in saw ginning and only a small quantity is processed in roller ginning. Bengal Desi is mostly processed in roller ginning and only a small quantity is processed in saw ginning. In Lower Rajasthan area and other cotton growing States of India !ike Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Southern States the cotton is mostly processed in roller ginning.
Problems of Processing - Quality & Contamination
There are deficiencies in many ginning units which lead to production of contaminated cotton. They are:-
(i)
presence of ginning units with less efficient and outdated single roller gins,
(ii)
poor maintenance of the gins with no trained gin fitters,
(iii)
no cemented platforms for heaping of seed cotton thus resulting in mixing of dust, stones, graveis and dirt at the kapas stage itself,
(iv)
lack of properly laid out pucca roads,
(v)
non-availability of chalnis (sieves) to clean immature seec cotton/off grade cotton,
(vi)
absence of pre-deaning and post cleaning facilities.
(vii)
improper settings of the gins resulting in cut-seeds or full seeds in cotton lint,
(viii)
there are hardly 500 units which are composite. Cotton is contaminated during transit in distantly placed separate ginning and pressing units,
(ix)
absence of work culture end absence of head caps in men anc
women engaged in ginning and pressing of cotton
Objectives of MM - IV
The objective of Mini Mission IV will be improvement in the processing of cotton. The Ministry of Textiles will be Nodal Agency for this Mini Mission with the objective of modernisation and upgradation of existing Ginning and Pressing units.
Components of An Ideal Ginning and Pressing Unit :
An ideal ginning and pressing unit should be having the following components:-
By the end of 9th Five Year Plan i.e. 2001-02, a total of ISO factories will be upgraded/modernised. Each factory will be given assistance to the level of 25% of total expenditure incurred for the purpose with an.average expenditure of Rs.50.00 lakh/factory. Since the start of current year viz. 1999-2000 every year 50 G&P factories will be upgraded.
Premium Price for Cleaned Cotton :
It is, however, very difficult to convince the ginning and pressing factory owners to invest in machineries/systems which will reduce contamination in view of the mills reluctance to pay premium price for such cleaned cotton. It is, therefore, important that In case the mills really want to reduce contamination in cotton, even an average mill owner should be willing to pay premium price for the cleaned cotton which in the lona run will be beneficial for them.
Revised EFC :
The original proposal had been approved for 5 years for implementation of Technology Mission on Cotton Including MM III & IV. The same has now been revised with revised physical and financial targets so as to co-incide with the 9th plan period in other words, MMIII & IV will be in operation at the first instance for 3 years under 9th plan to be followed by another 2 years under 10th plan totaling 5 years.
