COIMBATORE: In order to make cotton, the major raw material for textile mills, contamination-controlled, Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) is taking all out efforts to bring down the trash level in cotton being purchased from various ginners in the country.

ITF, which has already formed a consortium with 64 ginners from Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and other cotton producing States, will focus on to create more awareness among the ginners, since the cotton loses its quality during processing – farm to finish, ITF Cotton Team convener Prabhu Damodaran told reporters here on Friday.

“Though Indian cotton is very good in quality compared to available in the world, it has not lived up to its potential due to lesser awareness,” he said.

“As part of the efforts, both the ITF and Ginners, will bring down the trash level from two to three per cent now to nil, which will have an impact on the cost of purchase,” he added.

Representatives of ginners associations from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana, who were present at the press conference, said that they anticipated increased acreage and also good quality cotton in the coming season, following good rains reported in all the States.

Besides, more farmers are likely to cultivate cotton this season (October-September), following the increased MSP, as announced by the Centre, they said.

However, both the mills and ginners wanted the Government to help farmers to increase the yield by providing necessary technology, as it crossed 1,000 kgs in other countries, while it was around 500 to 600 kgs per hectare in India, they said.

Prabhu Damodaran said that the 32 member mills, who had purchased 3.8 lakh bales last season, will buy 4.5 to 5 lakh bales this season.

The ginners visited four textile mills here on Thursday and will visit more mills to understand the requirement, so that they can address the problem faced by the mills, he said.