CCI distributed 5,543 kapas plucker machines to marginal, small farmers so far

The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has so far distributed 5,543 kapas plucker machines valuing around Rs 4 crore to marginal and small farmers in all the cotton growing states under corporate social responsibility, the textiles ministry said on Tuesday.

Most of the cotton in India is manually picked which is a labour intensive operation, it said.

Unlike other major cotton producing countries like the USA, and Australia, fully mechanized harvesting by big machines are not successful in India due to small land holdings of cotton farmers in India, sowing/picking pattern (3-4 picking) and different climatic conditions in different states, it added. ''Therefore, a hand held kapas plucker machine is one of the options to bring down the cost for the farmers and a remedy for contamination at farm level due to manual picking,'' the ministry said.

It said that a hand held plucker machine is a light weight (about 600 gram) machine which has a pair of rollers inside having small edged teeth on their outer periphery and is operated by a lightweight 12 volt.