If the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, has its way, then we could have cloth made from coloured cotton. In fact, this could be just months away.

The university has now perfected growing cotton, which is not genetically modified, with natural dark brown, light brown and green colour after almost a decade's research.

This could cut the cost of processing for garment manufacturers by more than half, while also ensuring that pollution is not caused by dyeing. Consumers, too, will not have to shell out more for the cloth made from coloured cotton since the industry will be saving money on dyeing and processing.

Last year, the Madras High Court had ordered shut dyeing units in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu for polluting the Noyyal river. It had thrown the garment industry in disarray.

“Coloured cotton can now be commercially cultivated in the country. We have grown it on a trial basis in a village near Dharwad in Karnataka and have reaped success,” said Dr Shreekant S. Patil, senior cotton breeder of the Dharwad varsity.

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission has approached the varsity to grow the cotton and make cloth out of it.

“The Commission has set up aside Rs 80 lakh to grow coloured cotton. But the signing of the memorandum of understanding has been delayed because we are demanding royalty. The issue will be sorted out soon,” said Dr Patil.

A few private players, too, have shown interest in growing coloured cotton.

The US and Europe already have developed coloured cotton and clothes, too, are available.

Initially, the Dharwad varsity had spun cloth out from a single colour cotton, that is either dark brown, light brown or green. But now, it has made cloth that has been made from yarn of white, brown and green cotton.

The cotton, yarn and other products were shown to delegates at the World Cotton Research Conference here on Tuesday.

Coloured cotton had been in vogue in the past, but had been lost over a period of time. In the modern era, Sally Fox of the US came up with coloured cotton in 1982.

In India, finding of coloured cotton was reported in 1997 but the fibre suffered from short length and poor strength. Moreover, the yield was also poor.

But after nearly a decade's experiments, researchers have come up with coloured cotton with the fibre length and strength of the best varieties.

Presenting the varsity's findings at the conference, Dr Manjula M.S., a senior breeder, said that the yield of dark brown and light brown cotton was over 2.5 tonnes a hectare. In the case of green, the productivity was 1.4 tonnes.

The university is continuing its research looking for other coloured cotton, besides improving its strength and yield further.

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