PICKING

PICKING
Though no other method of harvesting can produce seed cotton of higher grade than good
hand picking but in case of India seed cotton coming to the market contains considerable
amount of trash which can be attributed to defective collection practices, bad storage and
open transportation. Most of the trash like leaves, plant parts, immature bolls, small
stones, dust, sand etc. get collected with seed cotton. The pickings are done at periodical
intervals and picked cotton are heaped on the ground without adequate protection from the
various type of trash including sand. The deterioration also occurs due to exposure to sun,
wind, dew and rain. Weight being the main criterion for paying labour as also in selling
of seed cotton, care is not generally taken to remove insect attacked, immature and
otherwise defective bolls & impurities.
The picking practices should be improved in a way that temptation of increasing the
weight by impurities is removed and the cleaned cotton picking is rewarded.