Colours in cotton, naturally!

New Delhi, Mar 15 (PTI) As white as cotton - you may have
heard it quite often, but ever heard anyone saying as green,
brown or as purple as cotton?

Well, that's what University of
Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad in southern Indian state of
Karnataka, is working on... to popularise growing
naturally-coloured cotton once again.

University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) is working on a
research project of the Khadi and Village Commission (KVIC) to
rediscover growing coloured cotton.

At present, cotton flowers can be seen in green and brown
colours only. However, Principal Scientist (Cotton) B M Khadi
at the university said as many as six natural green shades can
be obtained while 22 variations of brown are a possibility.

"There are 50 species in cotton, of which five-six
species have fibres with pigments. These are wild species of
cotton and they can be transferred genetically to the white
cotton seed," Khadi explained.

Not that cotton in colour is being grown for the first
time...they have been there for quite some time, though unused
and therefore, unnoticed largely on account of the coarseness
of the fibre.

But it was Sally Fox, owner of the US-based Vereseis Ltd,
who in 1989 introduced naturally-coloured cotton 'FoxFibre',
which could be spun in machines, too -- something that was not
possible earlier. Fox used the finest of the weak variety and
created a USD 10-billion business in the early 90s.

These naturally-coloured cottons have the potential to be
a viable alternative to the environmentally hazardous
synthetic colour dyes, the scientists at UAS said.

KVIC is confident of a good consumer response to the
fibre in natural colours, as the buyers are becoming more
and more conscious about skin allergies from the chemical
dyes. "Dyeing is not only harmful for the skin, it is also a
pollutant," Khadi said, adding that a lot of money and water
is also consumed in the process.

UAS has also begun working on developing purple cotton,
which is expected to have the finer qualities of the white
fibre.

However, there is also a flip side to the project, which
the university and KVIC will have to overcome. Farmers in the
area are skeptical about growing the naturally-coloured
cotton, because it cannot be sown along with the white
variety.

"The coloured fibre can contaminate the white cotton
flower," Khadi said and added that this remains the main
challenge for the project.