Jute, a best fibre, is obtained from one of the most important cash crops of eastern India. Exported as manufactured goods and as raw fibre, it earns valuable foreign exchange. The fibre is chiefly used for manufacturing hessian, sacking and carpet backing. It is used for storing and transporting grains, pulses, spices, sugar, cement, fertilizer, minerals, cotton and wool all the world over. Jute is also used for making mats, tarpaulins, ropes and twines. Woollenized jute is used for manufacturing cheaper rugs, and mixed with cotton it is used for producing decorative cloth, curtains and upholstery. The jute sticks are largely used as fuel and also for making gunpowder charcoal. Since recently, the paper industry has been using it as a raw material for coarser paper. Resin-bonded pressed jute sticks make durable hard-board.

In India the jute crop is grown in West Bengal, Assam, northern Bihar, south-eastern Orissa, Tripura and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The new grey alluvial soil of good depth, receiving silt from the annual floods, is nature’s best gift, but jute is widely grown in sandy loams and clay loams, with varying soil-management practices. Sandy soils and heavy clays are unsuitable. Soils with a low pH give a poor crop, the optimum pH being around 6.4.

Jute requires a clean, clod-free field with fine tilth. The land is, therefore, ploughed, cross-ploughed, and planked several times. All weeds are thoroughly removed.

The sowing of capsularis varieties starts in late February in low-lying areas that retain moisture of the previous flood or monsoon. Sowing in midlands and highlands starts with showers in March or April and continues till early June in the western part of the jute belt. For broadcast sowing, the seed-rates are 10 and 7 kg per hectare for capsularis and olitorius varieties, the germinability of seed being 80 per cent or above. The high seed-rates ensure an even emergence of seedling, which are thinned out in broadcast plots to a spacing of 10 cm. This operation is preferably carried out in two instalments, once when the seedlings are about 10 cm and subsequently when they are about 15 cm tall. While thinning, care is taken to remove all weeds with a hand-hoe. These operations account for 30-40 per cent of the cost of cultivation. Row-cropping has proved advantageous and a single-row seed-drill is used to sow the capsularis varieties 30 cm apart and the olitorius varieties 20 cm apart. The plant-toplant spacing is manually adjusted between 5 and 7.5 cm. Sowing is always done shallow, i.e. not exceeding 3-4 cm.

In jute-paddy-potato, jute-paddy-wheat, (jute-moong)-paddy-potato, cowpea-jute-potato, and jute-paddy-berseem rotations, jute may need one pre-sowing irrigation and one sustaining irrigation cropping pattern under rainfed conditions : Jute-paddy-mustard, jute-paddy-pulses or jute-paddy rotations are possible under this cropping pattern.

The gross uptake of N, P, K, Ca and Mg by the capsularis variety ‘JRC 212’ is 84, 16, 147, 84 and 29 kg respectively and by the olitorius variety ‘JRO 632’ is 111, 28, 164, 124 and 25 kg per ha, respectively. The resulting fresh crop weighs 40 to 50 tonnes, yielding 20 to 25 quintals of dry fibre, which are around 5 per cent of the fresh weight of the crop. Acid soils require amendment with 3-7 tonnes of lime in 3 years. Compost or farmyard manure at the rate of 4-7 tonnes per hectare promotes proper growth, specially when fertilizers are not available. P and K are applied as basal nutrients, whereas nitrogen is better top-dressed in two instalments-N (40-80 kg per ha for capsularis varieties, 20-60 kg per ha olitorius varieties)-P (half of the quantity of N) and K (quantity equal to N). If the jute crop is preceded by potato, no fertilization is recommended ; if it is preceded by paddy or wheat, P and K are not so much required. Nitrogen is the most important nutrient required. The ash of water-hyacinth is a rich source of potash. The application of magnesium on the North Bank of Brahmputra and in northern Bengal produced good results. In case of short supply of nitrogen, foliar feeding with notrogen at the rate of 15 kg of urea per ha at 10 per cent concentration, with a low-volume power sprayer in 2 instalments between 35 and 60 days, age of the crop proved useful. Capsularis varieties respond better up to 30 kg of urea.

Jute may be harvested any time between 120 and 150 days. Early harvesting gives finer fibre of good quality, whereas late harvesting gives a larger yield but a coarser fibre. The compromise between quality and quantity is found in harvesting at the early pod stage or around 135 days of cropping. The other consideration for early harvesting is to accommodate paddy-transplanting in accordance with the cropping pattern chosen. Harvesting is done by cutting the plants at or close to the ground level. In flooded land, plants are uprooted. The harvested plants are left in field for 2 to 3 days for the leaves to shed. Next, the plants are tied into bundles, 20-25 cm in diameter and the branching tops are lopped off to rot in the field.

The quality of the jute fibre among varieties differs on the basis of anatomical features of the fibre cells and their orientation and is genetically controlled. Coarser and light-body fibre is obtained from sandy soils whereas clay-loam soils with silt give fibre of superior quality. Climate and the nutrition pattern also affect the fibre. But the most important single factor is ‘retting’ which, if faulty, mars the positive contributions of the variety, soil, climate etc. Under-retting gives coarse and over-retting dazed and weak fibre. The bundles are kept standing in water, 30 cm deep, and later placed side by side in retting water, usually in 2 to 3 layers and are tied together. They are covered with water-hyacinth or any weed that does not release tannin and iron. The float is then weighed down with seasoned logs or with concrete blocks or are kept submerged (at least 10 cm below the surface of the water) with bamboo-crating. Clods of earth used as a covering material or as weighing agent produces dark (shyamla) fibre of low value. Gently flowing, fairly deep, clear and soft water is ideal for retting. The optimum temperature is around 34^oC; ditches, tanks and pools are also used for retting. Incomplete submergence produces ‘croppy’ fibre of extremely low value. Most of the defects in fibre are due to faulty retting. Over–retting results in ‘dazed’ weak fibre. Retting is a microbiological process and, therefore, the end-point is determined by inspecting a few plants each day from the tenth day onwards. If fibre slips out easily from the wood on pressure from the thumb and fingers, retting is considered complete.

Grading system for white jute (capsularis) has 8 classes, viz. W1 to W8, on the basis of length, strength, fineness and lustre, and freedom from enlargement and ‘roots’ (rejectable balas portion). For Tossa jute (olitorius) there are 8 classes, viz. TD1 to TD8.