The mature seeds are brown ovoid’s weighing about a tenth of a gram. By weight, they are 60% cotyledon, 32% coat and 8% embryonic root and shoot. These are 20% protein, 20% oil and 3.5% starch. Fibres grow from the seed coat to form a boll of cotton lint. The boll is a protective fruit and when the plant is grown commercially, it is stripped from the seed by ginning and the lint is then processed into cotton fibre. For every hundred weight of fibre, about one hundred and sixty weights of seeds are produced. The seeds are about 15% of the value of the crop and are pressed to make oil and used as animal feed. About 5% of the seeds are used for sowing the next crop.
With the advancement of technology, the processing of food has become considerably convenient. As a result cottonseed has been able to flourish in new markets such as feed products for livestock. Cotton seed is crushed in the mill after removing lint from the cotton plant. The seed is further crushed to remove any remaining linters or strands of minute cotton fibres. The seeds are further hulled and polished to release the soft and high-protein meat. These hulls of the cottonseed are then mixed with other types of grains in order to make it suitable for the livestock feed. Cottonseed Meal and Cottonseed Hulls are the most abundantly available natural sources of protein and fibre used to feed livestock.
Cottonseed meal:
Cottonseed meal is a good source of protein. There are two types of meal extraction processes: Solvent Extraction Process and Mechanical Extraction Process. Most of the meal is extracted mechanically through cottonseed kernels. The flaked cottonseed kernels are put into high pressure through a screw inside a barrel which is constantly revolving. The screw pushes out the oil through the openings made in the barrel. The dry pieces left in the barrel are preserved and ground into meal. On the other hand, during the solvent extraction process, the cotton seed kernels are subjected to fine grinding by pushing them through an expander and then the solvent is used to extract most of the oil. The solvent extracted meals have a lower fat content of 0.5% than the mechanically extracted meals with a fat content of 2.0%. Cottonseed meal is considered to have more arginine than soybean meal. Cottonseed meal can be used in multiple ways: either alone or by mixing it with other plant and animal protein sources
Cottonseed is the second most commonly produced oilseed in the world just slightly ahead of rapeseed averaging one-fourth that of soybeans in the same period. Cottonseed is a by-product of the cotton plant, which is primarily grown for its fiber.
Although cotton has been grown for its fiber for several thousand years, the use of cottonseed on a commercial scale is of relatively recent origin.
However, cottonseed oil falls to about fourth or fifth in the world production of oils, due to the relatively low amount of oil in the seed (about 18%) and to the great amount of cottonseed, which is fed unprocessed to cattle, especially dairy cattle.
In the United States, which is the world's second largest cotton producer behind China and just ahead of India, about 15% of the producer's income is from the seed portion of the crop.
Oil, linters, hulls and meal are produced in the processing of cottonseed. Cottonseed meal is produced principally by the extraction of oil by solvent methods or mechanical crushing.
The global production of cottonseed is around 35 million tons in the recent years. The major producers of cotton are also the major producers of cottonseed. China, USA, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Brazil are the major producers globally.
The trade in cottonseed is very less, when compared to other oilseeds. Of the global production of 35 million tons, 27 million tons is crushed for oil production and around 8 lakh tons is globally traded.
India, China and Uzbekistan consume almost all the cottonseed produced, within the country itself. USA consumes around 2.5 million tons of its production of 5.5 million tons.
Australia (2-3 lakh tons) and United States (2-3 lakh tons) are the major exporters of cottonseed; Japan (1.5 lakh tons), Mexico (2 lakh tons) and EU (1-1.2 lakh tons) are the major importers.
Cottonseed is a traditional oilseed of India. It is estimated that cottonseed production will be around 33% of the cotton production in bales. Around 80% of the seed is marketable surplus and arrives in the market for being crushed to oil.
The remaining is used as seed is fed to cattle.
India's cotton output and along with it the cottonseed, meal and oil output varies considerably from year to year in response to the vagaries of weather and pest attacks.
Although cotton is cultivated in almost all the states in the country, the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka account for more than 95 percent of the area under and output. These states are also the major producers of cottonseed.
Indore, Ujjain, Dewas, Mandsore in Madhya Pradesh, Nagpur in Maharashtra, Kota in Rajasthan are major trading centres. Cottonseed is sold through weekly auctions in Maharashtra. In other states, there is an active cash market in the season.
Cottonseed arrives in the market as a by-product of ginning operation carried on cotton. It is sold off immediately. The industry is largely un-organised, though several associations have been trying for the upliftment of the industry and scientific processing practices.
The prices display good volatility, with it falling during the peak arrival period (October - January). Akola, Parbhani, Nagpur, Yeotmal are the major trading centers where cottonseed from the cotton procured by the Maharashtra State Cooperative Cotton Growers Marketing Federation is auctioned off.
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