MULTAN: Agriculture experts have issued a set of guidelines to farmers for picking of clean cotton to enable them earn good profit.
Agriculture spokesman said in a statement on Thursday that good quality cotton can be obtained to attract premium price provided that farmers strictly follow guidelines from picking to transportation and ginning process.
Farmers should start picking cotton only when bolls are completely open as fibre in partially opened bolls can have its colour affected after picking. Ginners would face problems in ginning the cotton due to moisture, it was added.
Picking should be stopped immediately after rain to be resumed when the fibre in bolls becomes dry. Clean cotton cloth should be utilized and cotton be placed on it and then it should be placed at a high place to keep it safe from contamination.
Bt and non Bt cotton should be stored separately. Farmers should separate bolls, jute fibre, hair, plants particles from cotton and should not let it absorb moisture.
Farmers should separate all impurities from cotton stock before storing it in the godown. They should utilize the perforated metallic net trolley designed by the agriculture department for transportation of cotton from godown to ginning factory.
Jute cloth should not be utilized for cotton packing to avoid mixing of jute fibre in cotton.
Possibilities of mixing of impurities during transportation should also be taken into account and proper measures be adopted for its prevention.
Experts also advised ginning factory managers and other employees to keep the cotton or lint safe from impurities, saying that cotton should go into ginning process after it gets ample sunlight for two to three days. Cotton should be ginned when it has the moisture level of 8.5 percent otherwise ginners would get weaker fibre, it was added.
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