The Cost Of Manual Picking Increases Sharply, And The Benefit Of Cotton Planting Declines Seriously

In Anyang, Henan Province, a cotton field in the experimental farm of the Cotton Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences looks very special. Different from the cotton plants in other plots, the cotton plants in this plot are covered with white cotton buds, but no leaves can be found all over the body. The whole plot looks like a layer of loose and thick snowflakes floating at a glance.

A four-wheel tractor motor with two rows of iron combs at the front and an iron cage at the back of the cab roared into the ground. Cotton was cut and pulled off by the iron comb like a haircut, and then rolled into the iron cage behind the spiral rod like a tongue. In just 10 minutes, the cotton field covering more than one mu of land was shaved into a "bald head", leaving only cotton plants that were still growing in the field but "naked" behind the locomotive.

The field operation demonstration of the domestic multi finger cotton picker attracted political and commercial representatives and large cotton growers from major cotton growing areas across the country. A visitor was chasing a cotton picker to take photos, saying, "The day is finally coming.".

In fact, this day has to come, and must come.

The cost of manual picking increases sharply, and the benefit of cotton planting declines seriously

Among the three major crops of grain, cotton and oil in China, mechanized harvesting has not been realized, and only cotton has been so far. So that every cotton picking season, the cotton field is busy with cotton picking women wrapping their head scarves from morning to night. But now such a scene is more and more difficult to sustain. Because cotton pickers are so expensive that you can hardly afford them.

At this stage, the labor cost of cotton production in China has reached 1000 yuan/mu, accounting for 50% of the total cost, and a large part of it is taken up by the cost of manual picking. In the cotton areas of the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins, the cost of manual cotton picking is 400~500/mu; In the northwest inland cotton region mainly in Xinjiang, the cost has reached 660~1300 yuan/mu. "Even so, it is more and more difficult to hire cotton pickers in the mainland," said a representative from Xinjiang.

Xu Guangjun, chairman of the former Silver Cotton Professional Cooperative in Sheyang County, Jiangsu Province, said that his county is a famous cotton growing county in China. Ten years ago, the cotton planting area of the whole county reached 1.2 million mu, but now it has been reduced to more than 100000 mu. He believes that the increase in human costs, especially the increase in the cost of manual picking, is the main reason for the decline of cotton production efficiency and the reduction of planting area.

Li Fuguang, director of the Cotton Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, believes that the conditions for cotton picking by hand are difficult and the amount of labor is large. In the current environment, the price of hired workers is low and there is no one to find, while the price is high and there is no reasonable income for cotton farmers. The contradiction between high cost and low efficiency is becoming more and more prominent. There is no other way to solve it. The only way is to implement cotton picking mechanization in major cotton regions as soon as possible.

Supporting technologies accelerate the follow-up of machine procurement R&D and become more mature

Cotton is an important economic crop in our country, which plays an important strategic role in the national economy. At present, 30% of the world's cotton has been mechanically harvested, including 100% in the United States, Australia and other countries. Spain, Greece and other countries have also partially achieved mechanical harvesting.

In China, cotton harvesting machinery started late, and large-scale self-propelled cotton harvesters mainly rely on imports, which has become a bottleneck restricting the level of mechanization of the entire cotton production. Xinjiang is the largest main cotton producing area in China. After nearly 10 years of introduction, use and independent development of cotton pickers, the level of mechanical cotton harvesting in Bingtuan farms is basically close to that of advanced countries. However, due to the high price of 12 million yuan for large-scale cotton harvesters, together with the corresponding supporting equipment and maintenance and repair costs, it is difficult for ordinary enterprises and individuals to bear, and it is currently limited to the promotion and application in Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Different from Xinjiang cotton producing areas, which are suitable for the promotion and application of large-scale cotton pickers, there are many cotton farmers and relatively scattered planting plots in the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins, which are suitable for the promotion and application of small and medium-sized cotton pickers. In recent years, the industry scientific research project "Research and Demonstration of Key Technologies and Agronomic Technologies for the Whole Process Mechanization of Cotton in North China Cotton Region" undertaken by the Nanjing Agricultural Mechanization Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture has improved the configuration of the finger bar cotton harvester, and successfully developed a new type of self walking finger bar cotton picker with simple structure, superior performance and low cost, which can not harvest the cotton on the same line. The cotton picker participating in the on-site demonstration can harvest 7~11 mu of cotton per hour, with a net harvest rate of more than 93% and impurity content of less than 12%. The mechanical performance of on-site operations in Anyang was also highly praised by visitors.

Happy cotton planting has become the direction Don't miss the great opportunity

Compared with mechanical harvesting of corn and wheat, mechanical cotton harvesting has quite strict production technical index requirements for cotton from variety to cultivation, to later management, and even for bolling and boll opening, chemical control of defoliation time, which is also an important reason why it has been difficult to rapidly promote mechanical cotton harvesting.

In recent years, China's cotton science and technology workers have worked hard to tackle key problems, and have achieved satisfactory scientific research results in the above aspects, especially in the cultivation of early maturing varieties suitable for mechanical harvesting in the three major cotton producing areas in China, which can provide multiple high-quality cotton varieties for the promotion of cotton mechanical harvesting. At the same time, as China has realized the mechanization of cotton from land preparation to sowing and prevention and control, if we recognize the development trend of cotton production and seize the rare opportunity of transformation and upgrading, we will be able to successfully realize the "whole process mechanization" that cotton workers have been looking forward to for generations.

"The whole process mechanization of cotton production marked by mechanized cotton picking is the only direction of China's cotton production modernization, and we must go this step. If we don't go, the industry will decline, and we can't let the cotton industry be destroyed in the hands of our generation." Facing hundreds of representatives who came to watch, Yu Shuxun, then director of the Cotton Research Institute and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, who put forward the concept of "large-scale cotton planting, light and simplified cultivation, and full mechanization" in 10 years ago, spoke very earnestly.