Cotton Production Is Facing Internal And External Troubles. Cotton Planting Structure Adjustment Becomes The Key.

"Cotton is dying."

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This is the most recent and most widely heard statement by the industrial technology system, an economic post scientist and a researcher at the rural economic research center of the Ministry of agriculture.

In recent years, China's cotton planting area has dropped sharply.

According to the latest cotton production monitoring data of the national cotton industry technology system, the cotton planting area decreased by 22.8% this year. According to the China Cotton Association survey, the actual planting area of cotton in 2015 may be less than 50 million mu, the lowest year since the founding of the people's Republic of China.

Take cotton province Hebei as an example, in 2010, the cotton planting area in the province was about 10 million mu, and now this figure is only 5 million mu up and down, almost "cut down".

"This year, the expert advisory group of the Ministry of agriculture has arranged for several experts to go to Henan to investigate. Everyone is worried about where to go.

Du Min said with a bitter smile.

"In the end, how many acres will the cotton planting area be reduced to attract attention?"

Ma Zhiying, a breeding post scientist of the national cotton industry technology system, and after studying the cotton production situation in Hengshui, Shandong and Binzhou in Hebei, Hengshui, it is urgent to see the severe decline of cotton planting area year by year.

"Cotton planting area in China is not less than 70 million mu a year.

In the past, cotton production suffered serious problems such as Helicoverpa armigera and Verticillium wilt.

With cotton for more than 30 years, Ma Zhiying changed the cotton area.

What causes cotton growers no longer willing to grow cotton? DuMin agreed with experts attending the meeting at a meeting of the Ministry of Agriculture: the most fundamental reason is the collision between product price ceiling and production cost floor.

"The price of the cotton market is now about 13 thousand yuan per ton.

The cost of producing a pound of cotton is 6.8 yuan. "

Du min pointed out that the cost of cotton planting in the cotton growing areas in the mainland is also high.

In some places, the "floor" is higher than the "ceiling", and cotton farmers lose their profit margins.

But domestic cotton still has no advantage in the international market.

In 2011~2013, during the temporary storage and storage of cotton in China,

The price of cotton in the United States is several thousand yuan lower than that in China.

Since the implementation of the target price and related subsidy policies in 2014, the domestic and international cotton prices have been gradually integrated.

There is still a big gap between cotton and cotton.

Naturally, cotton mills and other cotton producers are more likely to choose imported cotton with high quality and low price, while domestic cotton will basically go to the State Reserve warehouse with the price of government support.

In response to this situation, Chen Xiwen, member of the central rural work leading group and director of the office, exclaimed: "the biggest problem of China's agricultural products is the strange phenomenon of" three volumes plus growth "- output and inventory are increasing and imports are also increasing.

Since imported cotton is of good price and high quality, can it only be imported without production?

"Definitely not."

Ma Zhiying said, "at least we must ensure that 60% of cotton depends on ourselves, otherwise we will not have the right to speak and the pricing power of cotton.

Let other countries decide that our cotton will be more risky in the future.

He pointed out that cotton as an economic crop has a long industrial chain, and the whole industrial chain of planting, processing and commerce is linked to "one hundred million farmers, twenty million workers and a large number of third industry practitioners". Therefore, the cotton industry is not just as simple as cotton planting: "we can not buy foreign cotton while we have a large number of working people without anything to do, especially in areas where land and ecological conditions are suitable for cotton growing."

In Hengshui, cotton planting seems to be the only option for the region to save groundwater from falling.

Chen Guirong, an investigator of the agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau of Hengshui, said that in the history of Hengshui, coarse cereals began to grow in 2001, and the cotton planting area continued to expand and reached its peak by 2013.

The decline of cotton planting area began in this year. Under the stimulation of the state's direct grain subsidy policy, the planting area of wheat and Maize in Hengshui has increased sharply, and a large number of cotton fields have been converted into grain fields.

Wheat +

The cultivation method has intensified the formation of underground funnel area in North China - Hengshui's farmland irrigation water accounts for 82% of the total water consumption.

Soon, the problem of over exploitation of groundwater in the North China "alarmed the Central Committee of the party".

"Jujube Heng funnel" and "Shandong Dezhou funnel" are nested each other, and connect with "Cangzhou funnel", "Xingtai giant new funnel" and "Tianjin funnel" and so on. In the eastern plain of Hebei, the largest and deepest funnel area of deep water in the world has been formed, which has become an ecological problem in China.

"Funnel area water resources are insufficient to support long-term growth of grain crops.

The water consumption of cotton is about 1/5~1/4 of wheat + maize, and it is also salt tolerant and barren. In this area, cotton planting is the best choice for crop structural adjustment.

Experts who participated in the cotton production research of the national cotton industry technology system agreed.

In the eyes of the old cotton people, cotton is not a simple economic crop. They have a deep understanding of "cotton is booming, and cotton is damaged."

"No grain is unstable, no cotton is uneasy."

Song Yutian, a researcher at the national cotton industry technology system and the former director of Hebei Handan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said.

However, it is not easy to turn the grain fields back into cotton fields, and the old peasants can not afford to spend a year in the White House.

In the black dragon river basin, which is located in the core area of groundwater exploitation in North China, since 2014, the state has produced every ton of water.

2000 yuan, farmers who subsidize only one season cotton per year have protected farmers' enthusiasm for planting cotton to some extent. However, in DuMin's view, the days of subsidized cotton planting are unsustainable.

Moreover, the high cost of cotton production is not related to its low degree of mechanization.

Because cotton is a highly productive crop, production, management and picking are expensive and time-consuming. If there is no higher income, the enthusiasm of farmers is not high.

In addition, Ma Ping, director of the national cotton industry technology system pest and Disease Research Institute and director of the Institute of plant protection, Hebei Academy of agricultural and Forestry Sciences, pointed out that cotton is a "medicine pot", which has many diseases and pests throughout its life and requires frequent use of pesticides.

The backward production mode directly damages the health of cotton farmers, and also leads to a decline in farmers' willingness to plant cotton.

"Moderate scale planting is a barrier we must overcome."

Zhai Xuejun, Deputy Secretary General of the China Cotton Association, proposed that large-scale agricultural machinery such as cotton picker and other large agricultural machinery could be used and the cotton varieties and quality problems could be solved easily.

Ma Zhiying pointed out that the research work of cotton industry should also catch up with the country. The state should continue to increase financial support and speed up the development of efficient and simplified cotton planting technology system, such as suitable pest resistance, high yield, high quality and early maturity cotton varieties, cotton field full mechanized management of agricultural machinery, and integrated management techniques of agro machinery and agronomy integration, helping cotton farmers to reduce cotton planting costs and raise cotton quality, so that farmers can "grow cotton happily."