ON QUANTIFICATION OF THE QUALITY AND ECONOMIC RETURN OF COTTON LINT: PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS AND RANK-SUM ANALYSIS

Abstract

Exploring the best laboratory or field conditions for maximizing the yield is usually the focus of studies. We think that improving economic value of the crop should be one of the most useful aspects of an experiment relating to an important cash-generating crop like cotton.
The economic value of cotton, like any commodity, is based upon quality. The quality of the crop is assessed subjectively by the experts of the field, which we believe needs quantification. Several responses are recorded for the crop, none of which serves the purpose itself. However there are responses, which define properties of the crop and could jointly be studied for the purpose.
Farmers will certainly be interested in improving the quality of the crop to get a higher price but will be more interested to maximize their net profit. So recommendations leading to higher production costs with less net profit will not attract farmers' and growers' attention. So economic return is given its due weight.
We have used four main classification criteria of cotton fiber-namely length, strength, uniformity and fineness - to define the ultimate quality and economic value of the crop. The criteria are bundled together into different indices using Principal Component Analysis and related techniques.