With fresh investments in the jute industry virtually drying up, jute scientists have come up with a technology for village-level miniature jute mills to resuscitate this sector.
The tiny jute spinning units can be backed up by jute yarn-based handloom sector and small bleaching and dying units for producing home textiles, garments, handicrafts and shopping bags, which are in demand as eco-friendly items.
The machinery needed for processing and spinning jute in the cottage sector has been developed by the National Institute of Research on Jute and Allied Fibre Technology (Nirjaft) here, which was till recently known as the Jute Technology Research Laboratories.
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According to Nirjaft experts, new strategies and measures are needed to rehabilitate the jute sector, which is fighting a losing battle against the synthetic alternatives to the natural golden fibre. Many jute mills have closed down and the rest are working at part of their installed capacity. No fresh investments are coming to this sector, not even in technology upgradation .
Over 90 per cent of the jute fibre is used for making bags, hessians, carpet backing cloth. The demand of these products has been sustained artificially through the jute packaging order that makes it mandatory to pack a substantial proportion of foodgrain, sugar and fertiliser output in jute bags. Once this order is withdrawn as part of the reforms process, the conventional jute industry might find it difficult to survive unless it diversifies its product base.
Jute growers, on the other hand, have been resorting to distress sale for the past five years because of lack of adequate demand from the mills. If such a situation continues unabated, the farmers might be forced to switch over to other crops.
Nirjaft director S K Bhattacharyya said the low-cost small-scale jute spinning system designed and developed by this institute was capable of spinning jute and its blends with other fibres for making conventional and non-conventional products. Some of these miniature spinning units manufactured by a public sector undertaking were received well by the users, though these were priced unduly high by this manufacturer.
Realising that the future of this versatile natural fibre rested heavily on diversification of its uses, cost-effectiveness and eco-friendliness, the institute intends to encourage the individual entrepreneurs and cooperatives to set up mini jute processing units in the cottage and rural sectors. Clusters of units could come up in the jute-growing areas to produce high-density poly ethylene (HDPE)-blended jute core yarns, cover yarns, jute synthetic fibre blended yarns, single and multi-ply yarns for making items like handbags, sling bags, table covers, table mats, suitcases, kit bags, pot hangers and sports material.
Rural handloom operators could also produce loosely-knit fabrics for making bags to pack potato and onions. The existing industry is not geared to supply this fabric though its demand is rising fast thanks to spectacular increase in the production of these and other similar vegetables.