Down on a cotton farm and at a Ginning factory

The final day of the conference was spent down on the farm and visiting a Gin. Many of the delegates had left and a few hard core remained including Farhan and I.

Yesterday my colleague Farhan had a very tough day, having to report to the police as he'd inadvertently incorrectly registered his arrival in the country even after having to visit 3 separate police stations on his first night here. Unlike the open welcoming arms of the local farmers the local police commissioner was on the point of rude by all accounts. Why this silly system of reporting to a police station for Pakistani nationals exists I have no idea. It is however a reciprocal arrangement. As a consequence he missed the caves and evening entertainment last night which was a great shame and he was missed by many people.

Today was therefore a welcome break for all of us, and to be greeted in the way in which we were was absolutely wonderful.

First of all we went to a couple of small villages to meet the local farmers and see what they are doing. This was impressive. The amount of composting going on was good to see, and vermi compost and preparations of cows urine etc.



A small band played and entertained us while we looked around and some of the delegates danced in the sun with the locals. All great fun and educational at the same time.



After wandering around a few fields and looking at the cotton crops, we assembled under a colourful awning where some speeches were made by the senior farmers, people from the company that buys here and the delegates.



We saw people out under a tree making traditional flat bread in tawas on small wood fires.



Nearby was a Hindu temple where more music was playing. India is so full of colour and I'm sure its not just there for us visitors.



I took loads of photos as usual and here are just a small selection between the text.



Next we headed back to the coach and off to a Gin. My previous experience of Gins are that they are hot, dusty awful places to work. This however was spotlessly clean in comparison to many I've seen. Painted walls and well segregated areas and even safety barriers!

I don't recall ever having taken a video of one in action and I suspect many of you will have never seen one so here it is.



In a Gin the cotton seed is separated from the fibre and at this one the fibre is then pressed into compact bales. Each weighs around 170Kg.



These bales then get transported to spinning factories where the fibre is spun into yarn. So you can see the supply chain becomes complex very quickly. Hence knowing where the fibre in your clothes comes from can be a difficult thing to find out unless careful record keeping is carried out all the way through.