sann-hemp is one of the important fibre crop. Mostly grown in India. fibre grade is excellent than jute , and also grown for green manure purpose

1. Prepared by Sunil & Shylaja

2. Sunn-hemp
crotoleria juncea

3. content
• Introduction
• History & origin
• About sunn-hemp
• Uses
• Area production and productivity
• Cultivation practices
• Harvesting & Fibre extraction
• Yield

4. Introduction
• Fiber crops are field crops grown for their fibre
which are traditionally used to make paper, cloth,
or rope.
• 3 main groups—textile fibers (used in production
of cloth).
• cordage fibers (used in production of rope).
• and filling fibers (used to stuff upholstery and
mattresses).
• They are a type of natural fiber.
• Fibers come from the phloem tissue of the plant.

5. Origin
• C. juncea has been grown as a fiber crop in
India since 600 BC (Treadwell and Alligood,
2008) and is still used for fiber production in
India and Pakistan (Wang and McSorley, 2009)

6. • Fibre from Indian sunnhemp was first
introduced into Europe in 1791-1792 by EIC
• Quality of indian hemp was excellent

7. Sann-hemp
crotoleria juncea L.
• Sann-hemp or bombay hemp or banars hemp,
Pundi. Sunnhemp, Indian hemp, Madras hemp,
Brown hemp,
• Important fibre crop in india
• Imp. role in national economy as raw material for
indigenous industry and foreign exchange
earner through export.
• Particular grade of fibre (white) for manufature of
tissue paper, Paper for currency.

8. • Superior than jute
• As high per-cent age of cellulose and
• Low amount of legnin
• which is more durable than jute
• Sunn fiber is stronger when wet, and is fairly
resistant to mildew, moisture and
microorganisms in salt water.

9. Uses
Fibre
Papers
Fishing net
Mats

10. Tissue papers Ropes

11. As green manure
• As green manure,
• When plants are 6-8 weeks old
• Crop is turned under with inverting plough
• Add 40-60 kg N /ha after decomposition
• Green fertilizer internationally

12. Forage crop
• farmers grow sunn hemp for livestock
forage—the leaves are 30% protein—and
fiber, since the plant has a fibrous stalk when
allowed to mature

13. Rotational crop
• Rotation with potato, tobacco,s/c, tee and
coffee subjected to damage by nematode
attack
• It kills/reduces CCN (Cereal Cyst nematode),
RLN (Root Lesion Nematodes), rhizoctonia and
take-all

14. Cover crop
• Fix 60-80kg N
• Excellent cover crop (fast growing)
• Drought resistant
• Can be grown infertile soil.

15. Seed
• 2ndry source of income.
• Contain 30-35 % of protien (albumin and
globulin)
• Used for making adhesive
• 12.6% oil with 4.6%linolenic acid, 46.8% linoleic
and 28.3 % oleic
• Purify blood, other impetigo, psoriasis, urinary
crystalluria
• Trypsin inhibitor and alkaloid like Retusamine –N-
oxide

16. Others uses
• can improve soil properties, reduce soil
erosion, conserve soil water, and recycle plant
nutrients.
• potential to build organic matter levels and
sequester carbon in the soil.

17. • Sunn Hemp is called this because of its bright
yellow flowers and that it can be a source of
fibre (hemp).
• Sunnhemp cultivation requires only half of the
energy (3,882 MJ/ha) required for jute (7672
MJ/ ha) besides having better tensile strength
than jute and durability when exposed to
light.

18. Important chemical constituents of
sunnhemp fibre
(Chaudhury et al.,1997)

19. Area production and productivity
• India is the largest producer of sunnhemp
fibre, followed by Bangladesh and Brazil.
china, pakistan
• Contribute 77 % acreage and 73% production
• India contribute 23% production and 27%
acreage
• The annual production of sunnhemp fibre in
India was around 70000-75000 tons from
almost 2 lakh hectares during mid-sixties.

20. • About 20 percent of the produce were used to
be exported to the overseas market till 1970s
• But gradually, area and production started
declining
• presently the total production of fibre is
around 18800 tons per annum from 0.31lakh
hectare

21. National scenario
Year Area
(x’000 ha)
Production
(x’000 tons)
Yield
(qha1
2001 49.2 21.1 4.29
2002 45.9 18.2 3.97
2003 37.2 18.8 5.05
2004 35.6 18.8 5.28
2005 34.3 19.2 5.60
2006 33.2 19.6 5.21
2007 31.5 18.5 5.97
Source: Sunnhemp Research Station, Pratapgarh and Directorate of Jute Development,
Kolkata

22. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
area(000ha
000tonn
q/ha

23. Distribution in India
• U.P., M.P., Maharashtra, orissa
• Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and A.P. etc.

24. State-wise major sann-hemp growing districts

25. Botany
• herbaceuos annual
• 1-3 m tall
• Inflorescence – open receme
• Seeds is kidney shaped
Tap root with Lobbed nodulesPetals is deep yellow
Fruit –an inflated pod

26. Climatic
requirements
• Warm season crop
• Grows best in tropical and subtropical
• Annual ppt 50 – 430 mm
• Av. Temp* 15 – 37.5*C
• Short day plant

27. Soil
• Any well drained
• But for fibre: grown fairly light loamy texture
soil retained sufficient moisture
• Initial stages pH ranges 6-7 where P
availability high
• pH 5- 8.5
• Kharif – northern
• Rabi – south (where winter is not pronouced)

28. Land preparation
• One ploughing followed by 2-3 cross
harrowing made friable and weed free
• Levelled, gentle slope

29. List of varieties/ elite types developed so far in India

31. Seed & sowing
• Looses its viability quickly , not older than one
year seed
• 20-25kg/ha (fibre)
• 50-60 kg/ha (green manure)
• Treated with culture

32. • Kharif: may & june (S-W monson) and
harvested in oct.
• Rabi: oct-nov. and harvested in March
• For green manure grown at any month
• Spacing 30×10cm
• 2-3cm depth
• Epigeal (3-4day)

33. Manure and fertilizer
• Leguminous – fullfill its N requirement
• Initial boosting 10-15kg N
• P (20-40kg) is important – inc. rhizobium
popu., Proper development of root & nodule
• K 20kg , combination of P and K – heighest
response to fibre yield
• Other Mg and Mo as per soil test

34. Water management
• Not require any irrigation during kharif
• When crop is grown for fibre 1 irrigation must
be given drought cond. For long dry spell

35. Weed management
• Not much weed problem, because seedling
grown very fast and supress weed
• ipomea sp. Whose seed germinate, grow,
flowers at same time
• Remove manually before flowering

36. Pest and disease
• Wilt (Fusarium sp.)
• Seed treated with thiram @3g/kg
Anthracnose (collecotrichum sp.)
Rust (uromyces sp)
Spray with mancozeb @ 2g/ltr

37. • Stem borer – affect fibre quality
Spray 0.4% diazinon
• Sann-hemp moth
Endosulfan 30EC @1.5litre/ha

38. Harvesting
• Differs from place to place.
• at pod formation stage – at central india
• At pre flowering or full blossom stage – in southern
part
• In Bihar – green pod stage
• In Maharastra and West bengal – very late at fully
matured pod stage
• Generally for fiber purpose – 90-100(50% flowering) or
120 – 150 days (pod formation stage)
• Flowering normally starts in sept.

39. • Using sickles at the ground level.
• In U.P and Bihar the tops of the plants (30cm) are
cut for fodder purpose.
• Later thick and thin plants of equal size are sorted
out and tied in the bundles of 20-25cm dia.
• Bundles are kept in the field for 2-3 days.
• Some area leaves are removed by hand and plants
are sent for retting immidiately.
• In Ratnagiri dist. of Maharashtra, plants are simply
spread on the ground for 10-15 days.
• retting takes place due to dew which is quite
heavy during nights.

42. Yield
• 10-12q/ha of fibre
• Under proper management
• yield upto 15q/ha

44. • Retting:
The process in which the fibre in the bark is
separated from the woody portion by the
action of microorganisms present in the
water.
The process involves steeping and keeping
the stems submerged inwater for certain
periods.

45. Factors affecting the retting process:
• Water temperature
• Locality
• Time of the year
• Weather conditions
• Depth and source of water
• Thickness of stalks
• Quantity of straw in relation to volume o
water

46. Cement blocks

47. • Pool of stream

48. Steeping:
• Bundles are arranged side by side in
water.(preferably in single layer.)
• Bundles are weighted down.
• Softening of fiber- action of the enzyme
(bacteria).
• Fiber is removed from stem by hand.

49. • Arranging the bundles

50. • Weighted down the bundles

51. Duration of retting:
• Sept: 3-5 days
• In cold water 7-9 days

52. • Extraction of fiber:

53. Under retting:
Removal of fiber is the difficult
Task as bark will adhere to the
Extracted fiber.

54. Over retting
Micro organisms will break
down the tissues surrounding
the fiber and this results in
weakening of the fiber.

55. • Dried extraction of the fiber
• 2.7-3.6kg of dry fiber per day - hand extraction

56. After extraction:
Fibre is washed in water and dried in sun.
In sunhemp with good retting high grade
white fiber yield of nearly 10-12q/ha.

57. Mechanical properties of sunhemp fibre:
• Strength- (tenacity)
Ratio of breaking load of fibre (g) to the
fineness (tex).
• Extensibility
• Fatigue property
• Torsional rigidity
• Fineness
• Density.

58. Fineness:
• length and breadth ratio of ultimate
cell is a measure of fineness.(450)
• It is much more than the jute, mesta,
roselle, sisal, coir, aloe.etc..(75-140).
• however ramie, flax, cotton are finer
than sunhemp on this count.(900-
3500)

59. • Tenacity
• In terms of bundle tenacity toss a jute and
sunhemp fall in the same group. Similar to
mesta, roselle, bhindi, dhaincha, coir and aloe.
• This property mainly influenced by retting
condition.

60. – Density
–Total volume of certain weight of the fiber,
cut into a definite length, arranged in a
perticular way, and put under constant
pressure.
– These values of sunhemp fiber bundles
are more in comparison to tossa and
white jute, bhindi, dhaincha, sisal,etc.,
– But less than ramie, flax and true hemp.

61. • Physical properties of sunhemp fibers:
1. Ultimate cells:
length- 5-20mm
breadth – 12-35mm
2.Filaments
tenacity - 30-40 g/tex
extension at break - 2.5-3.5 %
Transverse swelling in water - 18-20%
3. Bundles
Tenacity 15-35g/tex
density 1.3-1.5
moisture regain @65% RH – 10.5
@100%RH – 28.5

62. Chemical properties:
• Major constitutions
Cellulose 78.3%
Lignin 4%
Pentosan 3.6%
Urinic anhydride 1.7%
• Minor constituents
Nitrogenous matter – 1.4%
Fat and wax – 0.5%

63. • Compare to ramie, sunhemp fibre has got
highest amount of a cellulose compared to all
other bast and leaf fibres.
• The high a cellulose content as well as degree
of polymerization or the chain length makes
this fibre an ideal one for preparing specially
papers.

64. Fiber and quality
Characters like length,strength, fineness, colour and
uniformity constitute the quality parameter.
Graded in 3 different grades:
• White type: >60% of total production.
• Green or ganjam type: 39% of total production
Obtain from ripening stage of harvest. It is stronger
than white and fetches higher price in the market.
• Dewghuddy type: <1% of total poduction.
Very fine fiber, cream coloured with very fine texture.
Fetches 75% more price than others in market.

65. Grading of fibre for marketing:
• fiber quality and grading is done Based on
the time of harvest. i.e.,
Preflowering stage:
• Produces finest grade fibre of dewghuddy
group.
• Min. length – 75-100cm with max. refraction
of 2.0 -8.5 %
• Fibre is of finer texture and white colour.
But production is <2% of total.

67. • Flowering stage:
Generally harvested in this stage.(white type)
Fibre extracted from such plants falls In four
subgrades.
Benaras grade
Bengal grade
Chapra grade
Gopalpur grade
These constitutes nearly >60% of total
production.

69. Ripening stage:
Classified into 5 types
Gangam or green
Itarsi extra fine
Itarsi fine
Seoni fine
Jabalpur fine

71. Marketing
• Cultivator village dealer near by market
‘kutcha’ bales Middle man or fiber dealer
(40- 125 kg, for transport convinient) (at district level)
‘Pucca’ bales( common size 124*51*46cm)
• sunhemp fibers sometimes exported to U.S.A., Great
britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Argentina, Greece and
Russia.

72. References
• https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs1
42p2_053283.pdf
• http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/tr003
• JRJ 610 (Prankur): A new sunnhemp (Crotalaria juncea L.)
Variety for high yielding and superior quality fibre : Sanjoy
Shil, J Mitra and SK Pandey
• http://www.molokaiseedcompany.com/products/tropic-sun-
sunn-hemp.html
• wsmith@agronomy.com.au
• Article sunhemp in India
• Moderen practices of raising field crop by chidda singh
• Field crop by Rajendra prasad (ICAR)

73. Thank you