Gujarat Cotton Farmers – Saving energy and making money
Pankaj Patel, president of Abellon, says most cotton farmers in the Gujarat region (which is one of the world’s largest cotton growing regions) used to simply burn the debris or let it break down on their land. The volume of by-products is relatively high in the cotton industry, which means hundreds of tonnes of material is burnt in the open air during harvesting season. This problem led to Abellon’s idea to turn the residue into pellets. “Most of these farmers don’t know much about global warming. But they do know about local pollution. They know what it’s like if you burn this residue in the open air and what it does to the air quality. Many people suffered from respiratory illnesses.”
With that in mind, it didn’t take much for Abellon to convince the farmers to collect the residue rather than burning it.
Abellon now operates ten local collection centres, which gather the by-products for two plants. In all, it employs over 200 people.
Source: https://www.thebetterindia.com/3689/gujarats-cotton-farmers-saving-energy-making-money-crop-waste/
