Context
Member of Parliament (MP) from Barrackpore constituency in West Bengal met the Union Textile about issues concerning jute farmers, workers and the overall jute industry.
About issues
- Mills are now procuring raw jute at prices higher than what they are selling them at after processing.
- The government has a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) for raw jute procurement from farmers, which is ?4,750 per quintal for the 2022-23 season.
- However, as the executive stated, this reached his mill at ?7,200 per quintal, that is, ?700 more than the ?6,500 per quintal cap for the final product.
- Though the Union government has come up with several schemes to prevent de-hoarding, the executive believes the mechanism requires a certain “systematic regulation”.
What is Jute?
- Jute is the only crop where earnings begin to trickle in way before the final harvest.
- The seeds are planted between April and May and harvested between July and August.
- The leaves can be sold in vegetable markets for nearly two months of the four-month jute crop cycle.
- The tall, hardy grass shoots up to 2.5 metres and each part of it has several uses.
- The outer layer of the stem produces the fiber that goes into making jute products.
- But the leaves can be cooked, the inner woody stems can be used to manufacture paper and the roots, which are left in the ground after harvest, improve the yield of subsequent crops.
- A ‘Golden Fibre Revolution’ has long been called for by various committees, but the jute industry is in dire need of basic reforms.
- Jute is a soft and relatively long fibre that has the ability to be spun into strong, coarse threads.
- Jute is the second most abundant natural fibre in the world.
- Jute is known as Golden Fibre.
Jute Industry in India
- The jute industry in India is 150 years old.
- India is the largest producer of Jute after Bangladesh and China.
- India is also the world’s largest consumer of jute and jute products.
- Jute production in West Bengal accounts for nearly half of the country’s total.
- There are about 70 jute mills in the country, of which about 60 are in West Bengal along both the banks of river Hooghly.
- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, and Orissa are also major jute-producing states in India.
- West Bengal, Bihar, and Assam produce nearly 99% of India’s total production.
