Ramie cultivation

Ramie. This includes the bast fibres obtained from certain Urti cacecs, cultivated mostly in the Far East owing to their whiteness, lustre and strength they are the best textile fibres furnished by the vegetable kingdom. 

Rept. 7, A Report on the Cultivation of Ramie in the United States, with Statements Concerning the Practice in Foreign Countries, Cost of Cultivation and Percentages of Yield, the Machine Question, and Preparation of the Fiber for Manufacture, 1895. 

The starting point in the textile supply chain is the raw material preparation. Textile fibres are obtained from two main sources natural (cellulose or animal) fibres or synthetic fibres. Natural cellulosic fibres include conventional and organic cottons, rayon, linen, hemp, jute, ramie and sisal. Cotton is used to produce 40% of world textile products (Saicheua et al., 2012). The major environmental concern in cellulosic fibre production, especially for cotton fibre, is the chemical fertilizers and pesticides used during cultivation. The second concern is the high level of water consumption (Dave and Aspegren, 2010 Muthu, 2014). Cotton is one of the most popular natural fibres used in the world. Three percent of the world s cultivated land is used for cotton production and 16% of the world s insecticides are used on this crop alone (Saicheua et al., 2012 Muthu, 2014). Moreover, the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, machinery and electricity causes some human health and environmental problems. Also cotton growing requires 7—29 tonnes of water per kg of raw cotton fibres (KaUiala and Nousiainen, 1999). Other types of cellulosic fibres are hemp and flax, which can be considered to be the most significant sustainable fibres in the non cotton natural fibre sector (Werf, 2004 Muthu, 2014). 

Fibrous plants can be classified from their purpose point of view. In this classification system, bast fibers are classified into group of fibrous plants cultivated just for fiber production. The second group of the system contains plants grown for other goods, for example, fruits - coconut production, and fibers constitutes only a by-product of the plant - coir (Pickering 2008). Another classification system indicates that most of the technically important bast fibers are obtained not only from plants cultivated in agriculture, such as flax, hemp, or ramie, but also from wild plants, such as nettle. 

All bast (stem) fibers (flax, kenaf, ramie, nettle, hemp, jute) as well as hard fibers (caroa, sisal) are suitable as for reinforcing fibers for natural fiber reinforced polymer composites, if they have a high tensile modulus and sufficient tensile strength. In addition to cultivation site, type and harvest, the properties of natural fibers depend significantly on the fiber extraction method. An extraction to technical fiber grades, i.e. production of bundles with different number of single fibers, is generally sufficient for use in plastics composites. The properties of such extracted fibers may be described as follows ... 

The variety tenacissima differs in that it is more robust and has larger leaves, which are pale green on the face and a very much paler green on the back. They are not downy, however, and this affords a ready means of distinction from true China-grass. Boehmeria nivea is sometimes found wild in India, Malaya, China and Japan, and is probably a native of India and Malaya. China-grass and ramie are widely cultivated not only in China, Formosa and Japan, but also in Brazil, Mexico and the southern states of North America, and also in South Europe. 

Bast fiber crops are a group of plants that can produce natural cellulose fibers from plant stem skin. In history, cultivation of bast fiber crops is the oldest method to produce natural fibers for meeting clothing needs and other daily necessaries. The most important bast fiber crops are ramie, flax, hemp, jute, and kenaf, based on their production capacity and consumption quantity. To date, the production of bast fiber crops still primarily aims at the textile market. Facing fierce competition from synthetic fibers that have increased productivity and a steadily expanded end-use market, the world capacity of bast fiber production continues to decline. Currently, the production volume of the major bast fibers in the world is about 4.8 million metric tons, equivalent to 14% of the global production of manufactured fibers (Fibersource, 2002). 

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