ICAR-CIRCOT organised a National Seminar on ‘Challenges and Strategies for the Successful Adoption of Mechanization of Cotton Harvesting in India’

ICAR-CIRCOT organised a national seminar in Hybrid Mode on ‘Challenges and Strategies for the Successful Adoption of Mechanization of Cotton Harvesting in India’ on 27th September 2024. Seminar was aimed to assess the progress made so far in the cotton mechanisation, identify the gaps and challenges and formulate strategies for achieving complete mechanization of cotton harvesting in India. 

Dr. S. N. Jha, Deputy Director General (Engg.), ICAR, New Delhi and Chief Guest of the National Seminar urged to develop and demonstrate a model to showcase the complete mechanization of cotton harvesting and processing. He advised CIRCOT to work on developing the viable cleaning machinery for processing of mechanically harvested cotton. He advocated to consider the engineering parameters while developing cotton cultivars suitable for machine harvesting. He suggested to form a task force on cotton mechanization encompassing all stakeholders. 

Dr. C. D. Mayee, Former Chairman ASRB and Special Guest praised the work on varietal development suitable for machine harvesting done by ICAR-CICR and private sector seed companies in collaborative mode. He emphasized the need for continuing such integrated research efforts from public and private sectors to make cotton mechanisation adaptable by farmers.   

Dr. S. K. Shukla, Director ICAR-CIRCOT mentioned that in the last two decades, significant work has been done in public and private sector on many aspects of mechanization of cotton harvesting and ginning. He was of the opinion that the development of mechanical cotton pickers alone does not solve the challenge of cotton mechanization. He highlighted that some of the challenges in cotton mechanization are addressed through R & D in PPP mode. He stated that good progress has been made in development of cultivars amenable for machine harvesting under HDPS technology. The two row cotton spindle picker developed by private industry has shown promising results to Indian conditions. Presently grey areas that need focused work are the development of effective defoliants and machinery for cleaning of machine harvested cotton. 

Dr. V. G. Arude, Principal Scientist and Organising Secretary presented comprehensive strategies to enable complete cotton mechanisation and its successful adoption. He reiterated the need to create a centralised pilot plant facility for cleaning and ginning of machine harvested cotton. He opined that policy support and financial incentive from government to stakeholders are key factors to make cotton mechanisation a reality in India. 

A compendium of technical article on ‘Mechanisation of Cotton Picking and Processing’ was released on the occasion of the national seminar. 

Key stakeholders from industry viz. M/s. RASI Seeds, M/s. Ankur Seeds, M/s. Nuziveedu Seeds, M/s. Bayer Crop Science, M/s. Tirth Agro Agro Technology, M/s. Green Robot Machinery, M/s. Bajaj Steel Industries, M/s. Jadhao Gears shared their experiences, put forth current status and action plans for cotton mechanization. The experts from ICAR-CICR, Nagpur and ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal and other public sector organisations also presented their research findings in the seminar. 

A brainstorming session was organized under the chairmanship of Dr. S. N. Jha to determine the orientation of ICAR-CIRCOT's roles and activities in tackling new challenges in the post-centenary year.