Jiangsu Sheyang County: Why Does Cotton Growing Area Become Less And Less?

Sheyang county is known as the "big cotton county". Since the cotton production for the first time exceeded one million tons in 1988, and became the highest County of cotton production in the country, it has made many achievements in the annual production of over 100 million cotton lint.

Especially from 2000 to 2008 for 9 consecutive years, cotton output was above 1 million tons, and the highest in 2004 also exceeded 2 million tons.

According to the new administrative area caliber statistics, in the past few years, the cotton planting area in the county was basically over 600 thousand mu.

However, since 2009, the situation of cotton production in the county has undergone some changes, and the area of cotton planting has been greatly reduced.

County Cotton Association survey, in 2009 the county's cotton area is only 502 thousand mu, compared with 2008 reduced by nearly 150 thousand mu, in 2010, compared with 2009 has reduced by nearly 50 thousand acres, so that the county's total cotton area to 452 thousand acres.

Despite the surge in cotton prices and the increase in cotton planting income in 2011, cotton farmers' enthusiasm for cotton planting is generally high. Cotton area has resumed growth, reaching 525 thousand mu, an increase of more than 70 thousand mu over the previous year, but this situation has not been continued.

Affected by the sharp decline in cotton purchase prices in 2011 and the sudden drop in cotton yields, the cotton area of the county has dropped again this year.

County Cotton Association in early June after the end of the cotton nutrition bowl seedling pplanting statistics, only 350 thousand mu, 175 thousand mu less than in 2011, a reduction of more than 30%.

Compared with the average planting area of 650 thousand mu per year in the past 10 years before 2008, the area ratio decreased by 300 thousand mu, and the reduction rate was as high as 45.16%.

The area ratio of cotton to rice also changed from 1:0.78 before 2008 to the present 1:1.58.

With the reduction of cotton planting area, the total output of cotton is also shrinking.

From 2009 to 2011, the annual total cotton output in the county is about 800 thousand, so that the proportion in the whole country and the whole province has decreased from 1.07% and 17.37% in the previous 7 years to 0.65% and 16.36% in the past 3 years, respectively.

Why does a traditional large cotton County appear to have fewer cotton growing areas? Recently, the county cotton association has made some investigations and related information, and has made many comparisons and analyses. There are many reasons for this. But in addition to the production conditions, meteorological conditions and many other factors, such as the cotton production and the low level of mechanized operation, the most important thing is that the cotton planting income in recent years is low and unstable, and the comparative benefits are getting lower and lower. Cotton farmers' cotton planting enthusiasm has been dampened by several aspects.

First, the cost of production is increasing year by year.

County Cotton Association "

The total cost of cotton production includes fixed costs (mainly land conversion, contract or renting costs and public utilities expenses sharing), physical and chemical costs (including seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, films and nursery supplies) and labor employment.

After the first time in 2008, more than 1000 yuan has been spent for the first time in the past 3 years.

In 2011, it reached 1413.3 yuan, an increase of 194.96 yuan and 398.18 yuan respectively, compared with 1218.34 yuan in 2010 and 1015.12 yuan in 2009, with an annual increase of 16% and 20% respectively.

Among them, the fixed cost increased from 73.52 yuan in 2009 to 90.33 yuan in 2011, which increased by 16.81 yuan in two years, an increase of 22.9%.

The cost of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, films and seedling materials in the physical and chemical costs increased from 48.3 yuan, 145.8 yuan, 79.4 yuan and 168 yuan in 2009 to 54 yuan, 182.6 yuan, 123 yuan and 22.37 yuan in 2011, respectively.

The cost of activating labour force increased from 651.3 yuan in 2009 to 941 yuan in 2011, and the cumulative growth rate reached 44.5% in two years.

Starting from the beginning of cotton production this year, in addition to fixed costs, there has been no significant increase or decrease or adjustment. In addition to the final determination of the production cost of some production materials, the actual price of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides has increased by 5%-10%.

In particular, cotton farmers have increased and increased their wages and wages of workers since the beginning of their work.

According to the per capita net income of rural residents in the county last year, the unit price of self employment will exceed 42 yuan this year, an increase of 18.5% over the previous year, while the cost of temporary employment of helpers will increase by 25% over the same period last year.

Accordingly, the increase in cotton production costs in this county will not be less than 10% this year.

Two, the income of cotton planting is low and unstable.

The income of cotton planting depends mainly on the output per unit area and the purchase price of cotton.

And the formation of yield is controlled by weather conditions and cotton planting management measures and cost of physical and chemical inputs.

The first is production.

During the past 3 years, during the cotton production, every year, there will be some weather that affects the growth and development of cotton. In addition, most of the cotton growing families are going out to work or work, so that the left behind elderly and women have become the main force of cotton production. Some of them can not fully meet the needs of high-yield cotton cultivation and have some adverse effects on stabilizing and improving cotton production.

According to the statistics of field production, cotton farmers picking and selling, and acquisition and processing, the county cotton association, from 2009 to 2012, the number of cotton seeds sold by cotton farmers was 184 kg, 214 kg and 191 kg respectively, all lower than the average 235 kg in the past 10 years.

Next is the purchase price of cotton.

Over the past 3 years, the price of cotton has gone up and down, and 90% of cotton farmers are accustomed to selling cotton to brokers from their own homes, so the actual price of cotton farmers is obviously lower than the purchase price of the enterprises.

The average price per kilogram of seed cotton in 2009 was 6.6 yuan, up to 10.84 yuan in 2010 and 7.3 yuan in 2011.

The direct income (output value) of cotton grown by cotton growers is 1214.4 yuan, 2319.76 yuan and 1394.3 yuan respectively, and the inter annual income gap is about 1000 yuan.

Three, comparative efficiency is even more sluggish.

Sheyang has always been an agricultural county. In recent years, with the adjustment of planting structure, the planting area of high-efficiency agriculture and facility agriculture has been increasing continuously, and its scale has been expanding continuously. However, the planting industry is still dominated by grain and cotton.

As the state has continuously raised the minimum grain purchase price, it has also increased the subsidy standard to the grain farmers, making the gap between them and cotton growing more and more large.

As far as Sheyang is concerned, from 2009 to 2011, the rice harvested in autumn with cotton (mainly japonica rice, accounting for more than 98% of the total rice area), the yield per mu was 593 kg, 607 kg and 634 kg respectively, and the average purchasing price of the market was 2.1 yuan, 2.56 yuan and 2.90 yuan per kilogram, respectively, higher than the minimum purchase price stipulated by the state in that year, 0.2 yuan, 0.4 yuan and 0.34 yuan.

Coupled with the government's direct subsidies for rice, improved varieties and comprehensive subsidies for agricultural means of production, the annual subsidy standards were 89 yuan, 104 yuan and 116.5 yuan respectively, while cotton production, cotton farmers' government subsidies were only 45.3, 12.1 and 15 yuan respectively.

The total income of such a 1 mu rice reached 1334 yuan, 1658 yuan and 1955 yuan respectively. In addition to the relative annual production costs of 768 yuan, 829 yuan and 913 yuan last year, the net income was 566 yuan, 829 yuan and 1043 yuan respectively.

It is obvious that even if rice is not considered, the yield of wheat before planting is higher than that of cotton and wheat. 1/3, and after the state increases the subsidy for agricultural machinery purchase, the indirect benefits of grain production mechanization will be raised, and the income of cotton farmers will not be as stable as that of grain.

In the past 3 years, except for 2010, the net income of cotton planting was 284.5 yuan higher than that of grain. In the other two years, the grain yield was higher than that of cotton, 321.4 yuan in 2009 and 1039 yuan in 2011.

In the survey, some village cadres told us that land is an important resource for farmers to live on. Although a part of the contracted land has been pferred through the form of circulation, it is used for developing efficient agriculture or merging large households to grow grain. But most of them are controlled by the peasants themselves. Some places can only continue to grow cotton because of the restriction of production conditions.

But cotton yields are low in recent years, making it hard to make money.

Lu Yongfei, a Nanyang Village in Haitong Town, has been a village cadre for many years. He is very particular about cotton planting. In 2011, he planted 6 mu of cotton. From the beginning of pplant to the end of picking, he was busy almost every day in cotton fields. Although the yield of seed cotton reached 230 kg, it was about 20% higher than that of the surrounding rural areas, but the investment was relatively high. After removing all the expenses paid in cash, the income from self employment included less than 900 yuan, which was similar to that of corn.

And a mu of land corn, workers only 5 working days will be enough, only 1/5 of cotton, the time saved can also be short labourers, a day can also have 80-100 yuan income.

So this year, many farmers have replanted their cotton fields to corn, upland rice and other crops that yield more than cotton.

Speaking of stabilizing cotton cultivation, Lao Lu spoke frankly and talked about some of his ideas. First, governments at all levels should pay attention to them.

Although cotton production can not be the same as grain production, there are administrative heads in charge from the top to the center and down to the place. The production will be tight and there will be more activities, but at least not only administrative division, but also specific responsibility. We should improve the service network and carry out some activities that are conducive to stable cotton production area, increasing production level and increasing cotton planting income, so as to create a good atmosphere for planting cotton and boost cotton growers' willingness to plant cotton.

Two, we should increase national support for cotton production.

First, we must continue to invest in the improvement of cotton production conditions, and gradually build up a number of high yield bases for drought and waterlogging.

Second, we should increase government subsidies to cotton and raise subsidy standards.

Like supporting grain production, cotton planting should be included in the comprehensive subsidy of agricultural means of production as soon as possible.

Thirdly, we must stabilize and raise the minimum purchase price of cotton, and do a good job of tracking and inspecting work, so as to ensure that most of the annual increase in prices can be pferred to cotton farmers. Three, we should actively explore cotton cultivation system with cost saving, labor saving, high quality and high yield.

Cotton scientific research institutions and agricultural technology departments should explore various practical technologies that can be recognized and accepted by the vast majority of cotton farmers from various aspects such as cotton seed cultivation, cultivation management, pest control and picking processing. They should try their best to reduce cotton farmers' various costs and expenditures in the cotton production process, do everything possible to increase cotton production and increase cotton planting income, so as to better mobilize and protect cotton growers' enthusiasm for cotton planting and long-term stability.

Plant.