# Effect of Controlled Defoliant Application on Cotton Fiber Quality
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Information on length parameter  
AFIS is a count-based system, and values given on a number basis are actual measurements, whereas values given on a weight basis are calculated. In the table (n) represents the number basis, and (w) represents weight basis measurements. Fiber length is critical as it greatly influences the end use of fiber and the process needed for fiber transformation [58]. Also, the AFIS analysis for cotton fiber length and diameter provides a close estimation of fiber behavior in the spinning process [59]. In both fields, the fiber length (number basis) is statistically similar between the treatments (Table 6), however, the control showed statistically significant result and has lowest mean length in both fields. Likewise, coefficient of variation of fiber length (\(\text{L}_{\text{n}}\) CV%) showed statistically insignificant result on field 2 whereas it was significant on field 1 and 40% duty cycle and control had statistically higher coefficient of variation of fiber length. Another length parameter is L5% i.e., 5% span length and had statistically significant effect on both fields. In field 1, 40% duty cycle and in field 2, 20% duty cycle had higher 5% span length. Different result is observed on the weight basis measurement where 60% duty cycle has the lowest mean length in field 1, and no difference in length was observed in field 2. Some literature mentioned weight basis measurement as \"length-biased distribution\" [58]. Therefore, the fiber length property in this paper will be concluded according to number-based results. [PERSON] et al. (1999) mentioned that the selection of improved fiber length distribution was accomplished by AFIS method for their \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c} **SCN** \\ **(cnt/g)** \\ \end{tabular} & **SCN Size** \\ \hline
20\% & 654.87 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 163.62 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 9.00 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 1132.12 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 637.16 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 178.66 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 5.16 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 1124.66 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\
40\% & 666.12 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 160.62 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 10.37 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 1252.12 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 646.83 \({}^{\text{ab}}\) & 192.66 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 6.33 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 1110.33 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\
60\% & 634.25 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 138.50 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 5.87 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 1154.00 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 650.83 \({}^{\text{ab}}\) & 212.66 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 6.50 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 1152.66 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline Control & 647.00 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 236.25 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 9.50 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 1066.75 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 670.33 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 229.00 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 9.83 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 1246.66 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Effect of defoliant dosage on fiber quality cotton analyze by AFIS (Neps parameter). (Values not sharing a common letter within treatments are significantly different (\(p\leq 0.05\))). cotton breeding research, and the range of fiber length in their research was 18.8 mm to 24.6 mm, which is close is the length observed in our research [60]. The SFC was found to influence most of the yarn properties, such as yarn strength, irregularity, and frequency of thick and thin defects. This is justified by the strong correlation with each of the three measures of short fiber content [61]. In field 1, a 60% duty cycle was found to have lower SFC as compared to other treatments. Similarly, in field 2, 60% and 40% duty cycles were found to have lower SFC values. [PERSON] et al. (2012) reported a mean SFC\({}_{\text{n}}\) of 21% to 30% based on AFIS analysis done for plant breeding purposes, whereas the SFC\({}_{\text{n}}\) value ranges from 20.56-25.60% in our research. The lower the SFC, the better the fiber quality. C. Information on trash parameter  
Trash measures the amount of non-lint material in cotton, such as leaves and bark. The major causes of trash are crop management, harvest, and post-harvest processing such as ginning.