The machines were provided under CCI’s CSR activity
The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has distributed 5543 kapas plucker machines valuing around Rs 4 crores to 5543 marginal and small farmers in all the cotton-growing states (including aspirational districts) under corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Most of the cotton in India is manually picked which is a labour-intensive operation. Unlike other major cotton-producing countries like the US, Australia etc, fully mechanised harvesting by big machines are not successful in India due to small landholdings of cotton farmers in India, sowing/picking pattern (three to four picking) and different climatic condition in different states. Therefore, a handheld kapas plucker machine is one of the options to bring down the cost for the farmers and a remedy for contamination at the farm level due to manual picking.
Handheld kapas plucker machine is a lightweight (about 600 gram) machine that has a pair of rollers inside having small edged teeth on their outer periphery and is operated by a lightweight 12 volt. Cotton gets entangled with the rollers and is collected directly into a collection bag attached to it. The design of the machine makes it easy to operate in the field and affordable i.e. at a nominal cost of Rs 8000 per machine (approx.).
