June 27, 2024, Rishikesh:

A one-day workshop on ‘Mechanical extraction & retting of hemp fibre for development of sanitary and textile products using ICAR-NINFET technologies’ was organized on June 27, 2024, at Kalindi Agro Biotech Limited, Lal Tappar, Village Resham Majri, Haridwar-Dehradun Road, Tehsil- Rishikesh, Uttarakhand-248140. In this workshop, Dr. D. B. Shakyawar, Director, ICAR-NINFET encouraged the farmers of Uttarakhand for hemp cultivation as per the state policy and also highlighted the importance of hemp fibre and market opportunities in textile industries. Mr. Harshvardhan Reddy, CEO, Namrata Hemp Co Ltd. shared his business model on hemp fibre with participating farmers. He urged the farmers to take the initiative for the cultivation of hemp crop either solo or in contract mode. Dr. D. P. Ray, Pr. Scientist & Head C&BP Division informed the gathering that hemp is the most versatile crop and each part of the plant has a significant application in different industries i.e. textiles, paper & pulp, medicinal, automobiles, etc., Dr. Ray also discussed the retting process of hemp fibre. Dr. K. K. Samanta, Sr. Scientist briefed about the mechanical and chemical processing of hemp fibre for the development of value-added products. Er. Prateek Shrivastava, Scientist talked about the mechanical extraction of hemp fibre, he also demonstrated the working of ICAR-NINFET developed mechanical ribbon extractor to farmers. In this programme, 50 farmers from Lal Tappar village have participated.

(Source: ICAR-National Institute of Natural Fibre Engineering and Technology, Kolkata)