Cotton Prices Fluctuate. Cotton Growers Rely On Science And Technology To Grow Steadily.

Starting from this spring, new cotton varieties were planted, and Li Zhuang village, Wucheng Town, Wucheng County, Shandong province.

They have never put down their uneasy heart.

Because the price of lint on the market dropped from 31228 yuan per ton in March 10th last year, the price of national temporary purchase and storage has fallen below 19800 yuan per ton, which has dropped to about 19200 yuan per ton.

"How much profit can cotton grow?"

Li Zhuang village Party branch secretary Li Zhenchang told reporters that due to price impact, this year, Li Zhuang village cotton planting area reduced by nearly 30%.

Cotton prices down, cotton farmers worry

In Li Zhuang village, Wucheng Town, Wucheng County, Shandong Province, because the income of planting cotton is getting lower and lower, the plots with good irrigation conditions are used to grow grain, and the plots for planting cotton are mostly "two bases" and "three kinds of fields" with poor conditions.

When the income of cotton seed is good, 1200 acres of land in Li Zhuang village are basically half of grain and seed cotton, and this year cotton planting area has been greatly reduced.

"If cotton prices fall again this year, the cotton planting area will continue to decrease next year."

Li Zhenchang, Secretary of the Party branch of Li Zhuang village, told reporters without worry.

With cotton prices continuing to slump, farmers' desire to grow cotton is lower this year.

Wucheng county is a national cotton growing county. The cotton planting area in Wucheng county this year is 250 thousand mu, which is 50 thousand mu less than that of last year. It is reduced by half by 500 thousand mu.

It is understood that factors affecting cotton growers benefit from cotton planting, besides cotton purchase price, the high labor cost and high cost of cotton production are also important factors that affect cotton farmers' income.

Yan Jun, a senior agronomist of Wucheng County Bureau of agriculture, calculated an account to reporters: according to the calculation of 500 kg of seed cotton per mu in Wucheng County, the purchase price of cotton seed cotton is 2.4 yuan to 2.5 yuan, and the output value per mu is about 1200 yuan, but the cost of planting cotton can only reach 650 yuan to 700 yuan, which does not include the labor cost of cotton farmers themselves.

10 mu of cotton requires two labor forces to work in cotton fields every day. It takes 6 months to grow cotton from seed to harvest. After 6 months, the cost of water, electricity, fertilizer, seedlings and agricultural chemicals is reduced, and two labor forces earn a total of 5000 yuan.

Every labor force can earn less than 3000 yuan per cotton per year.

A young man who works outside the country can earn 2000 to 3000 yuan a month, even if he doesn't have the skills to sell his labor.

"Planting cotton is not cost-effective. Young adults go out to work.

Now the villages

The main force of planting is women staying at home and elderly people.

In many places, two old people managed to manage dozens of acres of cotton fields left by migrant children.

"Their ability to farm technology is worrying," Yan Jun said.

Not only in Wucheng County, but in recent years, cotton production in China has been affected by factors such as continuous rising labor costs, low mechanization level and poor comparative benefits. In 2012, the sowing area of cotton decreased and the situation was not optimistic.

Meanwhile, according to a survey conducted by the China Cotton Association for 12 provinces and autonomous regions, the intention of cotton growers in 2012 was 9.2% lower than that in 2011.

At present, about 30% of China's cotton consumption needs to rely on imports. If domestic production fails to recover, it will become too dependent on the international market and lose the right to speak in the cotton market in the long run. Cotton supply may be restrained by foreign cotton traders.

Rely on science and technology to stimulate domestic demand

Recently, the national cotton supply and Marketing Cooperative Association of China Cotton Association held the cotton Summit Forum in Chengdu. Participants from the supply and marketing cooperatives, textile processing enterprises and China Cotton Association agreed that the traditional cotton production mode has been unable to meet the healthy development of the cotton spinning industry. Now we must turn to relying on scientific and technological progress to promote the development of modern cotton industry.

Zhou Shengtao, President of China Cotton Association, suggested: first, rely on science and technology, increase output per unit area, stabilize the area, and ensure long-term and stable development of cotton production; second, increase policy support and give play to the advantages of main production areas; third, improve the level of mechanization of cotton production; fourth, innovate circulation mode, reduce links and reduce costs; fifth, strengthen exchanges and cooperation and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

Dai Gong Xing, deputy director of the National Council for supply and marketing cooperatives, suggested that we must change the traditional cotton production mode, adjust the cotton industrial structure, and benefit from scientific and technological progress, circulation innovation, increasing output and improving quality, so as to maintain the competitiveness of China's cotton industry's sustainable development.

Over the past two years, cotton prices have plummeted and plummeted, which not only increased the risk of cotton production, but also made it difficult for downstream cotton spinning enterprises to control production costs, which affected normal trade and pricing, and brought difficulties to business operations and exports.

The structure of supply and demand is the basic factor determining prices. Over the past 2 years, the fact that there is too much demand in the cotton market is an indisputable fact.

As consumption shrinks, the inventory consumption ratio has risen sharply this year.

Judging from the inventory cycle, it is still in the cycle of slowly digesting inventory.

Experts in cotton circulation and cotton textile enterprises suggest that expanding domestic demand and increasing cotton consumption are the key to the current weak market demand.

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Survey results show that textile enterprises in order to seek low cost, imported from abroad, the number of low price cotton yarn increased, and the majority of low count yarn, resulting in domestic low-quality cotton yarn sales are not smooth, high-quality yarn is still available.

Especially with cotton spinning enterprises turning to the production of high quality products, the demand for long staple cotton and high count yarn will continue to grow.

Therefore, on the one hand, China's cotton production should reduce costs greatly, and on the other hand, it should actively adjust and optimize the product mix.

Explore good ways to reduce costs

How to reduce the cost of cotton production? How to increase the benefits of farmers planting cotton? Shandong's Wucheng County, an experienced cotton grower, is promoting the good planting of cotton seeds and has achieved remarkable results.

Yan Jun told reporters that they are now trying to reduce the cost of cotton production in 5 ways.

First, to implement and popularize the "cotton streamlined cultivation technology", starting from improving the quality of cotton seeds, changing the traditional multiple seed sowing as "single seed sowing" to ensure that one seed and one seedling can reduce the multiple processes of thinning and seedling setting.

During the cotton growing stage, the "rough pruning" method was applied to simplify the traditional multiple pruning and pruning to one-time pruning, thus greatly reducing the labor cost of cotton fields.

Second, in view of the fact that cotton production is small and scattered, and the competition ability is weak at present, the cotton fields of farmers whose cotton planting capacity is weak can be concentrated to cotton growers and large families through the circulation of land, so as to cultivate professional cotton growers.

At the same time, we should accelerate the development of cotton specialized cooperatives and raise the level of farmers' organization so as to reduce production risks.

Third, we should promote the centralized planting of cotton and develop mechanized operations in cotton fields, especially reducing the labor cost of cotton harvest.

Yan Jun, for example, said that during the cotton picking season, the daily wage of a hired worker has risen to more than 40 yuan, and the cost of picking cotton has increased 0.4 yuan to 0.5 yuan per catty cotton seed.

Fourth, implement integrated pest management in cotton fields.

Organizing farmers' unified time, unified drug use and unified prevention and control not only improved the efficiency of dispersing spray, but also reduced repeated drug use, reducing the cost of prevention and control by 10 yuan to 15 yuan per mu.

Fifth, we should implement the improved seed and good method cotton planting project in saline alkali soil, explore suitable varieties and methods, and try out a way to increase cotton production and income for forty thousand or fifty thousand acres of saline alkali soil in the northern part of Wucheng county.

Yan Jun said that through several years of trials, Mu Mu experimental plots have yielded a good harvest of 650 kg to 700 kg of seed cotton per mu, and the cotton farmers participating in the trial have tasted the sweetness of the technology cotton seed.

"From the yield of 450 kg to 500 kg per mu in the cotton field to 650 kg to 700 kg of seed cotton per mu in the experimental field, and the cotton production in the experimental field has a space of 150 kg to 200 kg, we have seen the hope of planting cotton."

Yan Jun said with confidence.