Kolkata, Apr 3 (PTI) The Jute Corporation of India has initiated significant technological interventions to support the growth of the sector in the country and is aiming at expanding its reach to help increase the production of the golden fibre, an official said on Monday.
The corporation under the Ministry of Textiles is looking to broaden its reach to states such as Jharkhand, Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Tripura to increase raw jute production, he said.
"Our primary mandate is to procure jute from farmers under the minimum support price programme. We are also working towards disseminating technological interventions for the growth and transparency in the jute sector," JCI Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Kr Jolly said at a programme to celebrate the 52nd foundation day of the corporation.
He also said that the Jute Development Project - Jute I-Care - is in its ninth year and has benefited approximately 3.5 lakh farmers so far.
The project will help improve yield at a time when the overall acreage of jute cultivation has declined, he said.
"We are signing an MoU with the National Remote Sensing Centre to introduce a geospatial crop surveillance and monitoring system to cover jute fields on a pan-India basis. This will help accurately estimate jute production as well as productivity by using scientific methods. It will collect data from 1,000 areas," Jolly said.
JCI also intends to modernise the market for the crop as a whole through the use of blockchain technology in the raw jute supply chain, as well as providing an e-auction platform.
Meanwhile, JCI has so far procured over 5 lakh quintals of raw jute in the ongoing 2022-23 jute season through minimum support price operations and stated that it remains committed to protecting farmers' interests.
However, the jute industry had urged JCI to have a buffer stock of 10 lakh bales for adequate intervention during any shortage.
The corporation also appealed to people to use jute bags instead of plastics to protect the environment.