Green signal for jute technology plan

The Planning Commission has approved the jute technology mission, Wajahat Habibullah, secretary of the ministry of textiles, government of India (GOI), said here today.

"The Planning Commission has approved the jute technology mission and its corpus would be Rs 500 crore. The mission would address primarily the agricultural and manufacture aspect of the jute industry", said Habibullah, on the sidelines of 'Jute day' at the Agro 2004 organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) eastern region.

The integrated national jute policy would be announced by end-November or early-December, he added.

Habibullah said the major problem of the jute sector was over-dependence on sacking.

"The prospect of jute diversified products (JDP) are very good. The industry does not need to depend on statutory support from the GOI like 100 per cent reservation for packing of food grain and 90 per cent for sugar", he said.

The jute industry has failed to attract big growers to plant jute. Consequently only small and marginal farmers raised jute, he added.

Inadequate participation of banks and financial institutions in the industry as a problem, admitted Habibullah. He urged Ficci to address financial needs of small farmers. Contract farming could be a solution, he added.

Habibullah said improved farm management practice, sufficient quality rating facilities and availability of good quality certified seeds were the challenges facing the industry.

A pilot project undertaken by Jute Manufacturers Development Council (JMDC), National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA) and Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) in using jute geotextile in road construction had attracted attention globally, Habibullah said.

"Today the whole world is looking at this pilot project. If it is a success, then there would be huge demand for geotextile from foreign countries. The industry should now look for markets for such emerging products," he advised.

The pilot project was launched in November 2004 in six states over 50km of roads and was expected to be completed within 18 months, said N Sengupta, chief finance officer of JMDC.

Jute commissioner Subhakriti Majumdar warned that the strike called by some trade unions could hurt industry.