Known as the 'golden fibre' jute is one of the longest and most used natural fibre for various textile applications.
The Plant
Jute is extracted from the bark of the white jute plant (Corchorus
capsularis) and to a lesser extent from tossa jute (C. olitorius).
It is a natural fibre with golden and silky shine and hence called
the Golden Fibre. Jute is an annual crop taking about 120 days
(April/May-July/August) to grow.
It thrives in tropical lowland areas with humidity of 60% to 90%.
Jute is a rain-fed crop with little need for fertilizer or
pesticides. Yields are about 2 tonnes of dry jute fibre per
hectare. Jute is one of the most affordable natural fibres and
considered second only to cotton in amount produced and variety of
uses of vegetable fibres.
The fibre
Jute is long, soft and shiny, with a length of 1 to 4 m and a
diameter of from 17 to 20 microns. Jute fibres are composed
primarily of the plant materials cellulose (major component of plant
fibre) and lignin (major components of wood fibre). The fibres can
be extracted by either biological or chemical retting processes.
Given the expense of using chemicals to strip the fibre from the
stem biological processes are more widely practices. Biological
retting can be done by either by stack, steep and ribbon processes
which involve different techniques of bundling jute stems together
and soaking in water to help separate the fibres from the stem
before stripping. After the retting process, stripping begins. In
the stripping process, non-fibrous matter is scraped off, leaving
the fibres to be pulled out from within the stem.
Environmental benefits
Jute fibre is 100% bio-degradable and recyclable and thus
environmentally friendly. A hectare of jute plants consumes about 15
tonnes of carbon dioxide and releases 11 tonnes of oxygen.
Cultivating jute in crop rotations enriches the fertility of the
soil for the next crop. Jute also does not generate toxic gases when
burnt.
Uses of Jute
Jute is a versatile fibre. During the Industrial Revolution,
jute yarn largely replaced flax and hemp fibres in sackcloth. Today,
sacking still makes up the bulk of manufactured jute products. A
key feature of jute is its ability to be used either independently
or blended with a range of other fibres and materials. While jute is
being replaced by synthetic materials in many of these uses, some
take advantage of jute's biodegradable nature, where synthetics
would be unsuitable. Examples of such uses include containers for
planting young trees, geotextiles for soil and erosion control where
application is designed to break down after sometime and no removal
required.
Advantages of jute include good insulating and antistatic
properties, as well as having low thermal conductivity and moderate
moisture retention.
Producers
Jute is a product of South Asia and specifically a product of
India and Bangladesh. About 95% of world jute is grown in these two
south Asian countries. Nepal and Myanmar also produce a small amount
of jute. Pakistan, although it does not produce much, imports a
substantial amount of raw jute, mainly from Bangladesh, for
processing.(Source:
FAO)