Cotton Farmers' Income Is Low And Artificial, And Cotton Will Not Warm Up This Spring.

Shandong is the second largest cotton producing province in China.

The growers turned the floor, watered, and bought seeds, and they were busy and orderly.

Since the price of cotton has been on the market in 2014, the state no longer stores it.

In the traditional cotton province of Shandong, farmers' attitudes towards cotton planting are quite different from those of previous years. The situation of planting cotton is undergoing subtle changes.

Xiajin county is a famous cotton country in China. Due to the climate and soil suitable for planting cotton, it is known as "silver Xiajin". In the 80s of last century, the whole county in Xiajin reached an area of six hundred thousand mu, and was selected as the national high quality cotton production base.

In early April, Wang Yishuang, Zhu Guan Tun Village, Xiajin County, Dezhou, Shandong, was working with a hired worker before planting in his own land.

Wang Yishuang told reporters that unlike the kinds of grain, cotton grows throughout the year.

At this time of the season, it is the most urgent time for Wang Yishuang to give all his energy and time to his cotton.

Wang Yishuang's wife told reporters that if it hadn't been necessary to take care of her granddaughter, she would have to keep busy with the dozens of acres of cotton all year round.

The management of cotton is very labor intensive, from cultivation, weeding, pruning, watering, fertilizing, pest elimination, and then picking, pportation, drying, almost no leisure time.

Wang Yishuang's companion thought cotton was not only tiring and exhausting, but also less than corn and wheat.

But Wang Yishuang always disagreed.

Wang Yishuang: stick to it for another year. This year's market is good, the price is up, the subsidy is better, and so on.

Wang Yishuang wife: do you have any subsidy?

Wang Yishuang: it is still not enough to subsidize 150 yuan, or make up 150 yuan, no matter what.

Wang Yishuang, 51, has been planting cotton for 30 years.

At present, he grows 37 mu of cotton, and the income of cotton in previous years is not bad. However, since the implementation of the target price reform in 2014, the state no longer receives and stores the cotton prices.

In the autumn of 2014, the newly harvested cotton could also be sold for more than 4 yuan a kilogram.

But in 2015, the price of cotton fell to two yuan.

After selling the cotton that was harvested last year, Wang Yishuang found that he could hardly earn money after digging out all expenses.

He gave the price according to last year's quotation.

Wang Yishuang: last year I was an acre of land (output) 530 Jin, sold two yuan 72 Fen, these one thousand and five hundred yuan, right, fertilizer nearly three hundred yuan, more than 300, see what fertilizer to buy, when buying each year, do not buy the same fertilizer, this pesticide is about 11 times to 12 times.

It costs about 300 yuan to fertilize three times per mu, and 70 yuan for spraying 12 times of pesticide. This is only the cost of materials, and the labor cost is much higher.

Wang Yishuang: once again, a worker is basically a worker. He works four times in four times, and the four work is 120 yuan.

Wang Yishuang told reporters that labor costs are becoming more and more expensive, and planting cotton is a special labor.

Because all the children went out to work, their grandchildren had to take care of the grandchildren and the burden of the more than 30 acres of cotton land.

Although he is getting older, Wang Yishuang still insists that every farm work is done by himself, so that he can not invite people, so that he can reduce his expenses.

But even so, the cost of acre land is as high as 1100 yuan per year.

After this part of the cost is removed, only 400 yuan per mu of cotton is left, and 37 mu of cotton land can earn more than 12000 yuan.

To Wang Yishuang's reluctantly, he heard that Shandong's cotton subsidy price is 150 yuan per mu this year, which is much less than that of 235 yuan per mu in 2015.

In this way, half a year's work is busy, and the income of these more than 30 mu is still less than 20 thousand yuan.

To grow cotton is not as easy as making money on the outside.

Therefore, since the beginning of spring this year, Wang Yishuang has been trying to get entangled.

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Wang Yishuang: actually, I planted the cotton for the past thirty years. I feel that I have experience and can manage well. The grain has never been planted. I have no one to work for this age. The age is too large. I want to go out for a year to make thirty thousand or forty thousand.

Reporter: wouldn't it be nice if you didn't work at home?

Wang Yishuang: are you idle? Do you think I am idle? I have to work hard, and those who work hard must work one day.

Although Wang Yishuang could understand the return between payment and harvest, he found himself a lot of reasons to continue to grow cotton.

The reporter can see that for these dozens of acres of cotton, Wang Yishuang has a vague feeling.

Looking at the more than 30 acres of land to be planted, Wang Yishuang's greatest wish is to see that the price of cotton can be restored to a relatively high level in previous years.

Wang Yishuang: let me see when the subsidy is high. When the subsidy is good, I will continue to grow. This year I will not be able to do it again. I really can not change the grain field after the autumn. I can't do it any more. It has lasted for three years, and I try to grow cotton.

Wang Yishuang's Zhu Guan Tun Village has been planting cotton for many years, but with the implementation of the national target price reform policy in 2014, only more than 20 cotton growers now choose 7 kinds of cotton.

Wang Yishuang is also planning to grow cotton this year. He can hardly see that the villagers are growing less and less, and his age is getting bigger and bigger. He really does not know whether he will continue to grow next year.

Compared with Wang Bi, more cotton farmers have decided to switch their crops to corn and wheat.

How are they doing?

Liu Licun's Liu Xingzhen family in Xiajin County originally planted five mu of cotton. In 2014, cotton prices declined, and he changed the cotton into wheat and corn. Liu Xingzhen told reporters that he used to grow only five hundred catties of cotton per mu. According to the three yuan of cotton per catchback when he was replanting, he could sell one thousand and five hundred yuan per mu, removing the cost, and the net income per mu was around more than 500.

Shandong province Xiajin county farmer Liu Xingzhen: (per mu) after collecting five hundred jin, can earn five hundred or six hundred yuan, must receive five hundred or six hundred jin, three hundred or four hundred yuan.

Now that Liu Xingzhen has changed the 5 acres to wheat and corn, the actual income and cotton will not be too much in one year.

Liu Xingzhen said that planting wheat and corn is much more economical than planting cotton, and in his spare time, he can raise sheep, so that he can increase his income.

Tian Yong mu of the village of sutun village in suizhuang town also changed its more than 20 mu cotton to corn and wheat in 2014, and the income after planting was much better than that of cotton.

The cost of planting wheat and corn is also lower than that of cotton seed, which is about 700 yuan per mu.

Tian Yong Mu: when the wheat was planted, the base fertilizer was laid down. When the seeds were planted, the fertilizer was pulled down and the bottom was not fat. Basically, when the fertilizer was heavy, it was once a year, but in one year, it was closed for two seasons. With the seed added, the cost (income) was one thousand yuan and three hundred or four hundred yuan.

In addition to replanting grain, Tian Yong Mu told reporters that the climate and soil in the area are suitable for planting a fruit tree, which is a mulberry tree planted in Xiajin County for thousands of years.

After planting cotton, he deliberately planted 3 mu of land to plant this fruit tree.

After 3 years of maturity, it is estimated that the income of mulberry trees per mu can reach 3000 yuan.

Tian Yong Mu told reporters that their village has a total of more than 4200 acres of land, in previous years, the cotton planting area is at least 3000 acres, and now, the whole village's cotton field adds up to only 300 acres.

Although many cotton growers have planted other crops in 2014, Li Hongsheng, a big cotton grower, has turned 1000 acres of land into cotton.

Though confident at the beginning, after a year, Li Hongsheng suffered a blow.

Shandong Xiajin Hongfeng Cotton Industry Co., Ltd. Li Hongsheng: one thousand acres of land rent, plus pesticide, fertilizer, labor, picking and other expenses, went to more than 2200 yuan, our income is more than 100 yuan.

Such a result disappointed Li Hongsheng, who was so complacent.

Then, in 2015, the state subsidized the target price subsidies for cotton cultivation the previous year, which was 235 yuan per mu, that is to say, in 2014, the income of every mu of land was three hundred or four hundred yuan.

By the spring of 2015, Li Hongsheng was hesitant to prepare for the broadcast.

Li Hongsheng also noticed that the price of international cotton was much cheaper than domestic prices.

In 2014, in the international market,

The price is 15000 yuan per ton, while the domestic price of lint cotton with more impurities is close to 14000 yuan.

Li Hongsheng: according to the combination of the international market and the domestic market, because of the contrast of output, the price contrast of this quality, the price of domestic market and the price of lint cotton will definitely drop.

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In order to reduce the risk, Li Hongsheng replanted six hundred acres of land in his contracted land, and nearly half of the one thousand mu of land he pferred belonged to saline alkali land. It was not suitable for other crops to grow and could only grow cotton. The remaining six hundred acres of land that could be replanted were planted with wheat and corn.

Sure enough, cotton prices continued to fall after the fall of the new cotton market in the autumn of 2015.

The price of 10 thousand yuan of lint cotton to seed cotton is only two yuan and six or seven cents per catty, because of its higher cost, which makes Li Hongsheng pay 400 yuan per mu. In the face of this situation, Li Hongsheng is in a dilemma.

Now, Li Hongsheng is discussing with the technicians what crops he can grow. But in the face of 400 acres of salinized land, they have no way to deal with it.

Li Hongsheng: when we planted wheat this year, did we turn it into wheat?

Technician: No, they are all black alkali. We can grow wheat on this side, but we can not even get out of it. Besides planting cotton.

Li Hongsheng told reporters that in addition to planting cotton, he would also make a preliminary processing of cotton, remove the impurities from cotton seed and cotton seed and make it into lint, so that it could sell a better price.

However, most of the equipment in his processing shop is now at a stop.

Li Hongsheng's processing plant can only start off and off without raw materials.

Similar to his processing plant, Xiajin Yongfeng Cotton Industry Co., Ltd. is also a cotton processing enterprise.

Qin Gaoan, general manager of Xiajin Yongfeng Cotton Industry Co., Ltd.: but after the processing, the price is about thirteen thousand, but the time of collection is about thirteen thousand, or even less than thirteen thousand, so cotton mill has no profit and no profit.

In the empty cotton storage, general manager Qin Gaoan told reporters that at present, this has become a purely rental warehouse.

Originally, a cotton trading market in Xiajin county has been pformed into furniture market because of the shrinking volume of cotton trade in recent years.

Qiu Lichang, President of Xiajin Cotton Industry Association: because the market opened, it turned out to be an external window, but now it is closed. Because the volume of trading is decreasing, we can not manage it, so we closed it.

Qiu Lichang, President of Xiajin Cotton Industry Association, told reporters that there were dozens of cotton processing enterprises before the road in front of the market. Now only three or four of them are still in operation.

In recent years, the cotton planting area in Xiajin county has been shrinking year by year, and the planting area in 2015 is about 200000 mu. This year, the planting area will be reduced to about 150 thousand mu.

Qiu Lichang: domestic cotton prices have dropped because of a reduction in domestic demand.

Qiu Lichang said, compared with imported cotton, the quality of local cotton is shorter and the quality is slightly worse. At the same time, the scale is not high enough to operate mechanically, resulting in high cost.

In addition, because there is not a single pick, plus air drying and storage factors, cotton contains more impurities, which has become an important reason for the low quality and high cost of local cotton.

In Qiu Lichang's view, state subsidies should be further refined and more targeted.

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Qiu Lichang: it should be better to increase subsidies for quality cotton, increase the quality from the good quality of cotton seeds, and grade subsidies.

Reporter: what does the grading subsidy mean?

Qiu Lichang: grading subsidies my personal view is that good quality cotton subsidies are higher, and the quality of producing cotton is lower than that of subsidized cotton.

It is understood that in 2015, the national cotton planting area was 48 million mu, and in 2016, it was expected to grow 42 million mu.

Affected by the global economic downturn, the slowdown in textile and garment exports is an important factor in the collapse of cotton purchasing prices. Now many textile and garment manufacturers are unable to get orders, unable to produce normally, and therefore unable to purchase cotton, but also cause a decline in cotton prices.

In fact, the goal of developing cotton target price reform in the country is very clear. It is to give full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources under the premise of protecting the interests of farmers.

The government does not interfere with market prices, and enterprises purchase at market prices, which is conducive to restoring the market vitality of the industry and improving the market competitiveness of domestic agricultural products.

In fact, our reporter has seen changes in cotton processing enterprises in Shandong.

Yin Xing seed company is a leading enterprise in seed industry of Xiajin county. Cotton planting area has been decreasing year by year, cotton farmers have started planting wheat and corn, and Liu Shuhai's enterprises have begun to pform and upgrade.

Liu Shuhai, chairman of Shandong Yin Xing Seed Industry Co., Ltd., Mr. Liu Shuhai: in the past few years, when the cotton area was relatively large, the number of seed sales in those years was relatively large, especially in 2009 and 2010, when it was several million kilograms.

Liu Shuhai told reporters that the price of cotton seeds is also going down. In the past two years, the price has dropped from 30 yuan per kilogram to 20 yuan per kilogram, and the business efficiency has also declined.

Shandong's cotton output is second only to that of Xinjiang. It is the second largest cotton producing province in the country, but the raw cotton consumption rate is the largest province in the country.

And the textile enterprises in Shandong province can not buy high-quality cotton locally, they can only buy it from Xinjiang or abroad.

In response to this problem, Liu Shuhai is also actively thinking of ways to research and development.

Zhang Jianfu, chairman of Shandong Shengyuan group, started cotton distribution in Xiajin County in the 90s of last century, from producing towels and finished products to simple cotton spinning, and began to run high-grade cotton textiles in 2006. In 2012, Zhang Jianfu noticed the unique fruit resources, and began to pform and develop fruit products.

Although the development of fruit, brought Zhang Jianfu good returns.

However, he still did not give up cotton, and retained a more advanced cotton mill.

Zhang Jianfu, chairman of Shengyuan group, Shandong: if we want to stand in the whole analysis, the domestic textile products will not be reduced. The domestic market should be to restrict exports, increase the intensity of our own planting, and upgrade the quality. In addition, the state wants to stand in the interests of the common people, but the people will not make money if they do not grow money.

Zhang Jianfu told reporters that, like his own business, many of the original cotton spinning enterprises in Xiajin county have been closed or converted to survive.

Li Zhaoxin, manager of the Swiss Cotton Industry Co., Ltd., told reporters that their enterprises have just got two sets of advanced equipment of compact spinning and slub yarn.

Li Zhaoxin, manager of the Swiss cotton Co., Ltd.: This is affected by the downward pressure of the current market. Last year, the stock was relatively large. This year, we want to make an effort to upgrade the quality of the pformation and upgrading. We have made two things.

Slub yarn sales are in short supply and sold out.

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After more than a year's efforts, the Xiajin Nanhe Textile Technology Co., Ltd. and Donghua University's nanofiber yarn development project have completed the prototype production and will be trial production next month.

Cao Duanshan, deputy general manager of Xiajin Renhe Textile Technology Co., Ltd.: after adding nanofibers, the yarn has the effect of wearing comfortable, antibacterial and beneficial bacteria. It should be said that this is a point to increase the added value.

The quilt sold by Xin Qiu Home Textile Co., Ltd. is a cotton quilt that can be washed by water, and a cotton quilt must be of high quality cotton varieties and precise processing to achieve the standard of washability.

The cotton industry in Xiajin county has made important contributions to the local economic development. However, the development of the times, the single industrial structure and low industrial level have hindered the development of the local area. For this reason, the county government has formulated the goal of "breaking through the silver Xiajin achievement gold dream".

Xiajin county magistrate Cai Yupu told reporters that in 2015, more than more than 40 cotton textile enterprises in the county were discontinued, most of them were pformed.

The retained cotton spinning enterprises are actively promoting technological pformation and using some advanced equipment and technology to enhance their competitiveness.

Xiajin county magistrate Cai Yupu: for example, why do we guarantee the income of the masses? We have introduced some excellent varieties. This is suitable for the production of some high-quality fiber varieties in the region. The second is that we guide the land to be pferred to some large growers. Once again, we introduce some mechanized combined harvesting technologies to reduce production costs and maintain the competitiveness of Xiajin cotton.

Focus on change and grasp direction

After reading the reporter's report, I believe many people are worried about hard Wang Yishuang.

However, the market does not care how much cotton is planted and how much labor is paid.

What it needs is quality, variety, and products that meet special needs.

This is a reminder to Wang Yishuang, a traditional grower. We should pay attention to the changes in the market, grasp the direction of progress, and pay for hard work in return.

At the national level, reforming and improving the prices of important agricultural products such as grain is the important content of rural reform.

This year's Central Document No. 1 puts forward that we should adhere to the market-oriented reform orientation and pay equal attention to protecting farmers' interests. We should adopt the strategy of "sub species strategy and gradual progress" to improve the market regulation system of agricultural products and give consideration to the interests of three parties, namely, cotton spinning enterprises, circulation areas and farmers.

From this perspective, the role of policy is emerging, and the cotton textile industry chain has taken a step in the market oriented road.

The market is improving the vitality of the industry through the forced mechanism and promoting the development of the industry.

It is hoped that the relevant competent departments will supervise and manage the market links under the new mechanism and safeguard the interests of all parties.