Crop Cultivator

Crop Cultivator

Anyone a jute cultivator?

If you are a jute cultivator, you know the crops and the field, then could you please give me a description of the sowing season, harvesting, maintenance needed, beneficial elements, soil properties and all the important stuff that YOU have to look after, bot the general websites thing, like how is it in your area, dependin upon the climate there, and please giv eur name and country/city too. I need it for a geogo project. It'll be framed like an interview, "At the jute field" kinda thingee. Thanks for your help!

--Cultivation is dependent on the climate, season, and soil. Almost 85% of the world's jute cultivation is concentrated in the Ganges delta.
This fertile geographic region is shared by both Bangladesh and India (West Bengal).
Cultivation
To grow jute, farmers scatter the seeds on cultivated soil. When the plants are about 15-20 cm tall, they are thinned out. About four months after planting, harvesting begins. The plants are usually harvested after they flower, but before the flowers go to seed. The stalks are cut off close to the ground. The stalks are tied into bundles and soaked in water (retting) for about 20 days. This process softens the tissues and breaks the hard pectin bond between the bast & Jute hurd (inner woody fiber stick) and the process permits the fibres to be separated. The fibres are then stripped from the stalks in long strands and washed in clear, running water. Then they are hung up or spread on thatched roofs to dry. After 2-3 days of drying, the fibres are tied into bundles.

The suitable climate for growing jute is a warm and wet climate, which is offered by the monsoon climate during the fall season, immediately followed by summer. Temperatures ranging from 70-100 ºF and relative humidity of 70%-80% are favorable for successful cultivation. Jute requries 2"-3" of rainfall weekly with extra needed during the sowing period.-----
Retting
Pre-retting of jute stalk. If the bast fiber is easily separable from the jute hurd or core, then the jute is deemed to be ready for harvesting.Retting is the process of extracting fiber from the long lasting life stem or bast of the bast fiber plants. The available retting processes are: mechanical retting (hammering), chemical retting (boiling & applying chemicals), steam/vapor/dew retting, and water or microbial retting. Among them, the water or microbial retting is a century old but the most popular process in extracting fine bast fibers. However, selection of these retting processes depends on the availability of water and the cost of retting process.

To extract fine fibers from jute plant, a small stalk is harvested for pre-retting. Usually, this small stalk is brought before 2 weeks of harvesting time. If the fiber can easily be removed form the Jute hurd or core, then the crop is ready for harvesting.

After harvesting, the jute stalks are tied into bundles and submerged in soft running water. The stalk stays submerged in water for 20 days. However, the retting process may require less time if the quality of the jute is better. In most cases, the fiber extraction process of bast fibers in water retting is done by the farmers while standing under water.
Retting of jute stalk. Hitting the fiber with wooden hammer, pulling out the fiber from the hurd or core, washing with water, squeezing out the water, and stocking.When the jute stalk is well retted, the stalk is grabbed in bundles and hit with a long wooden hammer to make the fiber loose from the jute hurd or core. After loosing the fiber, the fiber is washed with water and squeezed for dehydration. The extracted fibers is further washed with fresh water and allowed to dry on bamboo poles. Finally, they are tied into small bundles to be sold into the primary market.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jute_cultivation

Production
Jute is a rain-fed crop with little need for fertilizer or pesticides. The production is concentrated in India and Bangladesh. The jute fibre comes from the stem and ribbon (outer skin) of the jute plant. The fibres are first extracted by retting. The retting process consists of bundling jute stems together and immersing them in low, running water. There are two types of retting: stem and ribbon. After the retting process, stripping begins. Women and children usually do this job. In the stripping process, non-fibrous matter is scraped off, then the workers dig in and grab the fibres from within the jute stem.

India with overall of ~66% of worlds production tops the production of jute. Bangladesh with ~25% lies at second position followed way behind by China with ~3%.Jute matting being used to prevent flood erosion while natural vegetation becomes established. For this purpose, a natural and biodegradable fibre is essential
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jute#Production ------------- Jute is the second most important vegetable fibre after cotton; not only for cultivation, but also for various uses. Jute is used chiefly to make cloth for wrapping bales of raw cotton, and to make sacks and coarse cloth. The fibres are also woven into curtains, chair coverings, carpets, area rugs, hessian cloth, and backing for linoleum.

While jute is being replaced by synthetic materials in many of these uses, some uses take advantage of jute's biodegradable nature, where synthetics would be unsuitable. Examples of such uses include containers for planting young trees which can be planted directly with the container without disturbing the roots, and land restoration where