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Jute is the most important bast crop. It is the cheapest of all the fibres. It is cheap because of large yields per hectare.

It is used for manufacturing gunny bags and hessian etc. It does not command high price.

Jute bags are required for storage, transporting and shipping of wheat, sugar, rice, cotton, wool, cement etc. More than 75% of jute manufacturings are used for packing agricultural products. Jute is also used for making rugs, carpets, ropes, strings and even cloth. The jute fibre has the quality of softness, length, strength and lustre.

Jute is native to India. Undivided India enjoyed monolopy in jute production and jute manufacturings.

The fibre is obtained after peeling off the skin of the plant, which had been soaked in pond water for some days. The length of the jute fibre may be as long as three metres which can be bleached and dyed to any desired colour and shade.

Jute farming is mainly done in the intensive subsistence agricultural regions of south-east Asia. Although Jute is grown in many countries yet, Bangladesh and India produce about 97 per cent of world’s total jute output.

Jute is a tropical plant. It requires high rainfall and high temperature. It grows the best where rainfall is seasonal and more than 170 cm per year and where the temperatures are more than 27°C. The plant needs more than 75 per cent relative humidity during the growing period.

It requires fertile soils. Thus best conditions are in the alluvial soil zones and delta regions, where floods are frequent. The best yields come from alluvial soils.

An ample supply of water for soaking the plants and stripping off fibre is a necessity.

A large supply of cheap human labour is essential for ploughing, harvesting, beating, soaking and separating fibre from the stalk. For transportation of raw jute to the mill sites, cheap and efficient means of transportation are an asset.

Jute is of two varities:

(i) Indian Jute (grown in the low lands)

(ii) Chinese jute (grown on the highlands)

80% of the Jute grown in India is of Indian variety.

Jute is the second important fibre crop of India. Jute is cheap, soft, strong, long and has lustre. India is the largest producer of jute in the world. It produced 1-7 million metric tons of jute in 1997, contributing about 39 per cent of the world output.

Jute cultivation is mainly done in the states of West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Orissa, U.E and Tripura. In recent years jute cultivation has also been introduced in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

The state of West Bengal leads in respect of jute production. It contributes half of India’s Jute production. In the districts of 24 Farganas, Nadia, Malda, Murshidabad, West Dinajpur, Howrah, Hoogly etc. jute is intensively grown.

West Bengal is the king of jute production in India. It produces 72% of the India’s jute over 68% of area.

In the state of Assam jute is grown in a number of districts like Goalpara, Kamrup, Nowgong, Tezpur, Darrang Cachar, Lakhimpur and Shivsagar. But the two districts of Nowgong and Kamrup contribute 90% jute of Assam. Here jute is intensively grown.

Bihar .

It produces nearly 13% of Indian jute, Purnea, Muzzafarpur, Sibsagar, Darbhanga, Champaran, Bhagalpur and Monghyr districts grow maximum jute of the state.

Orissa.

Cuttak, Furi, Balasore, Ganjam, Bolangir.

U.P.

Foothills of the Himalayas (the Terai region) where the Sarju and the Ghagra rivers deposit fine silt after floods. Kheri, Sitapur, Bahraich, Gorakhpur are the leading jute growing districts.

A.P.

Srikakulam and Vishakhapatnam districts.

Chhattisgarh.

Raipur district.

Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur states in north east India also grow jute. Jute cultivation in the Indian states has been favoured by

(i) excellent climate

(ii) fertile alluvial soils

(iii) availability of cheap labour

(iv) closeness to Kolkata, the largest jute market.

(v) Nearness to Hoogly Industrial area where jute textile manufacturings have been concentrated.

(vi)Development of means of transport especially in the Brahmaputra river.

(vii) Demand of jute products in the country.

Trade.

In order to meet the industrial need of the country, India imports jute from its neighbouring country, Bangladesh. In 1998-99 raw jute worth Rs. 92 crores was imported by India.