in search of desi cotton
Dharmendra and I travelled to Gujarat and Punjab in search of desi varieties of organically grown cotton for our next batch of yarn production. Since we restarted the Jangaon unit, we’ve been actively sourcing cotton again—everything we bought in 2023 has already been spun.
The travel was a little hectic, but fun in its own way. We met Satish. Missed our early morning bus to Adesar and ended up standing in a crowded bus stand figuring out alternate routes. There was a constant “sir ji, where are your chappals?” moment through the trip. Took a sleeper bus to Jodhpur honestly, no different from a general train compartment. Visited a few forts. Had a random argument with two strangers over not knowing the language, got called pagal bande. Stayed in a windowless underground hotel room. But overall, it was a good trip, great food everywhere. Still feels like this is too much to fully fit into a newsletter.
Adesar
Adesar is in the Kutch region of Gujarat. Here, we visited a farmer producer group, Adesar Vistar Khet Utpadan Producer Group. It’s a network of around 300 farmers, most of whom grow castor as their main crop. A smaller group is working with desi cotton, specifically kala cotton.
These farmers practice dryland farming. Typically, they grow one long-duration crop, cotton or castor, for about 8 months, followed by a shorter 4-month crop like pulses. Kala cotton works well here because it doesn’t require irrigation. They depend heavily on the September rains, sowing happens right after, and harvesting begins around March, with 3–4 rounds of picking.
The staple length is around 23 mm. No irrigation, no pesticides, soil health is maintained through crop rotation. Ginning is
done near Rapar, about 40 km away. Post-ginning, they retain seeds for the next cycle and sell the rest.
We’re not fully sure about contamination risks at the ginning mills, especially mixing with BT cotton. One option is to manually remove buds and then transport it to Telangana for controlled ginning, or potentially set up a small-scale ginning unit in Jangaon. The manual process would cost around ₹10 per kg.
They follow the market price with a 15–20% premium. Out of this, 5% goes to the producer group and the rest to the farmers.
From Adesar, we moved on to Jodhpur, which was more of a transit stop on the way to our next location.
Dhingwali
From Jodhpur, we travelled to Dhingwali, near Abohar in Punjab. It’s a citrus belt and main crops are orange, guava, amla, peaches. The region has canal irrigation sourced from a nearby barrage. Interestingly, water levels have been rising in recent years, so farmers are growing paddy as a way to balance water usage and manage soil conditions.
We met Surendra ji, who farms nearly 200 acres. About 70 acres are under cotton and other organic crops such as orange, almond, sugarcane, mahua, palm, guava, sweet lime., while the rest is commercial. Cotton is grown on about 10–12 acres. He’s cultivating multiple cotton varieties in the same space, which raises concerns around cross-pollination and what Satish often calls “seed memory.” For future production, it would make sense to work with him on a single variety to maintain purity. He’s also growing indigo on a small patch, mainly for seed collection.
We spent a good amount of time walking through his farm, trying different citrus varieties along the way. Ended the visit sitting under a tree, having tea, one leg dipped in the irrigation water, surrounded by green fields. It felt almost unreal. Later, we went to his house for a proper Punjabi lunch.
At the moment, he’s maintaining multiple cotton varieties, collecting seeds from different regions. We sampled three:
1. White cotton from Punjab, FDK 124, short staple (18–22 mm)
2. Golden cotton from Nagpur, two types:
* CNA 17522 (short staple, 18–22 mm)
* Vaidehi (long staple, 24–30 mm)
3. Brown cotton, native variety called Khakh Narma (long staple, ~20–26 mm, narma means long staple in Punjabi)
We’ve taken samples of all three and will plan the next production cycle accordingly.
There are ginning mills within a 100 km radius, but the quality wasn’t great, there was still visible plant waste in the lint. Pricing here also follows the market rate with about a 15% premium.
One constant through our time at his place, the desi hookah. Anyone who dropped by would casually take a couple of drags and join the conversation. Didn’t try it this time. Maybe next visit.
Ameer
march 2026