Question

What steps has resulted in the increase of internal demands of jute in recent years? Explain with current statistical data.

Answer 1

Answer:

Jute industry is one of the most important traditional industries in India. The Jute industry was established for the first time in India in the year 1885. The first power driven jute mill was set up at Rishra, near Kolkata.

After that a number of Jute mills began to set up near Kolkata just by the two sides of Hoogly River. During 1930, i.e. during the period of great depression, this industry had to face a serious setback. But during the Second World War this industry had again reached to its peak position.

At present there are 73 Jute mills in India with nearly 44,990 looms out of which only 70 units are in operation.

Total production of Jute textiles in India has gradually increased from 837 thousand tonnes in 1950-51 to 1060 thousand tonnes in 1970-71 and then to 1392 thousand tonnes in 1980-81 and then declined to 1200 thousand tonnes in 1987-88. But the production again increased to 1450 thousand tonnes in 1990-91 and then again declined to 1310 thousand tonnes in 1992-93 and finally increased to 1591 thousand tonnes in 1999-2000.

On the contrary total consumption of Jute textiles within the country has increased from 120 thousand tonnes in 1950-51 to 480 thousand tonnes in 1970-71 and then to 1230 thousand tonnes in 1990-91. Since the partition of the country, Jute industry has been facing a serious crisis due to acute shortage in the supply of raw jute. At present more than 70 per cent of the area under jute lies in Bangladesh.

In 1951, total production of raw jute in India was only 3.3 million bales as compared to its total requirement of 72 million bales. To meet this gap, various programmes were undertaken during the plans for intensive and extensive cultivation of jute in the country.

Accordingly, the yield per hectare rose from 1040 kgs in 1950- 51 to 1800 kgs in 1990-91. As a result of which total production of raw jute has increased gradually to 4.9 million bales in 1970-71 to 10.9 million bales in 1985-86 and then to 16.2 million bales in 1989-90 and then declined to 10.9 million bales in 1991-92. In-spite of being the largest producer of raw jute in the world, its total production is still insufficient to meet its own requirement.

The Jute Corporation of India was established by the Government for undertaking price support, commercial and buffer stock operations and for export and import of jute. Total production of jute textiles also rose from 8.9 lakh tonnes in 1950-51 to 14.3 lakh tonnes in 1990-91 and the production declined to 12.9 lakh tonnes in 1991-92.

Jute industry has now diversified their products and the mills are now producing also cotton bagging, jute tarpaulin, jute carpets, carpet backing, paper lined hessian, jute webbing and jute cloth.

As on January, 2012, total number of looms installed in jute industry stood at 49,529. During 2012-13 (April-March), total production of jute goods was at 1591.3 thousand MT compared to 1582.4 thousand MT in the corresponding period of 2011-12 showing a marginal rise of 0.6 per cent over the previous year.

During 2012-13, domestic consumption of jute goods was 1399 thousand MT (87.9 per cent of the production). Annually, the export of jute products ranges between Rs 1400 to 1500 crore. This jute industry is providing direct employment to 2.5 lakh persons and near about 40 lakh rural families are regularly deriving their livelihood from jute cultivation.

Problems:

The jute industry in India is suffering from numerous problems.

These problems are:

(a) Irregular and inadequate supply of raw materials,

(b) Problem of obsolete and worn-out plants and difficulties in their modernisation,

(c) Higher unit cost of production leading to high prices,

(d) Fluctuation in the production leading to high prices and

(e) Increasing competition from synthetic substitute goods both in home and foreign market.

Remedies:

Considering the problems of jute industry, proper steps should be undertaken to increase the degree of viability of this industry.

In the meantime, the Government of India has taken the following short- term steps:

(a) Re-introduction of cash-compensatory support for all varieties of jute goods exported since 1981;

(b) Advising the cement, fertilizer and other industries to use only new gunny bags for packing; and

(c) Advancing additional credit to jute mills for purchasing raw jute from growers.

The Government of India has also announced a package of financial assistance from banks and from Industrial Reconstruction Corporation of India (IRCI) for the development of sick jute mills. In recent years, the Indian Jute Industry is now modernising its post-spinning equipment by introducing new high speed machines and installation of broadlooms for the production of carpet backing.

In recent years, the demand for carpet backing cloth produced in India has increased in United States. Thus the strategy of development of the Indian Jute Industry should be to discover new products along with its new uses.

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