A New Path Of Bumper Harvest: A Revelation From Xinjiang Cotton'S High Output

Recently, the Statistics Bureau of Xinjiang autonomous region released data: in 2018, Xinjiang's cotton output reached a new high of 5 million 111 thousand tons, an increase of 11.9% over 2017, accounting for 83.8% of the total output of the country.

It can be seen that Xinjiang's status as China's largest commercial cotton production base is further strengthened.

At the same time, the cotton industry in the whole region carried out structural reforms in the supply side in 2018, making the cotton production mode change to high quality, low cost and high efficiency. The cotton production in the whole region showed a trend of increasing scale planting ratio, lowering planting costs and raising the level of intensive production.

Price reform guarantees cotton farmers' income

The new mechanism of separating prices from subsidies has replaced the original mode of unified purchase and marketing, so that the pricing power of cotton has been restored to the market, and at the same time, quality and efficiency have been the core competitiveness of cotton production.

Cotton production in our region can achieve high yield and good harvest, which is inseparable from the continuous stability of production links.

In order to stabilize the expected yield of cotton production and protect the enthusiasm of cotton producers, in 2014, the state launched a pilot project of cotton target price reform in Xinjiang. A new separation mechanism of price and subsidy has replaced the original mode of unified purchase and marketing, and has also made the pricing power of cotton return to the market while promoting quality and efficiency as the core competitiveness of cotton production.

"Cotton target price reform is both a reassurance and a catalyst."

In February 12th, He Hongtao, director of the double spring farmers' land co operative cooperatives of Daquan Township, Shawan County, said that the cotton target price reform not only guaranteed the basic income of the farmers, but also actively guided the production links to improve the comprehensive benefits, and continuously explored and promoted the cotton industry to achieve a higher level of development in raising prices and reducing costs.

Over the past two years, the attitude of the members of Shuang Quan cooperative society to cotton price subsidies has changed greatly.

In the past, cotton production was inseparable from subsidies, and no subsidies would be lost.

Now, thanks to the continuous improvement of quality, the selling price of cotton is also higher and higher, and the proportion of subsidies in cotton farmers' income is decreasing.

"In the past, one kilogram of cotton could receive nearly 2 yuan subsidy. Now our subsidy is 0.6 yuan."

He Hongtao said that the selling price of cotton gradually approached the target price, although the subsidies received decreased, but did not affect the farmers' income of planting cotton.

In addition to the increase in sales price and the increase of farmers' income, the drop in production links also contributed to the improvement of cotton comprehensive efficiency.

"Last year, through the promotion of advanced planting management technology, our comprehensive cost of producing one mu of cotton decreased by 80 yuan compared with the previous year."

He Hongtao said that in 2018, the per capita income of cooperative cotton reached 1100 yuan, an increase of 7% over 2017.

In order to further highlight the important role of cotton target price reform in guiding the cotton production to go up the track of quality development, in 2018, in the 6 counties of Shawan and Manasi, the new subsidy method of quality subsidies was adopted in our pilot area. After the cotton quality reached a certain standard, cotton farmers could get a subsidy of 0.3 yuan per kilogram, and actively guide farmers to continuously improve the quality of cotton.

Improving cotton production efficiency

The cotton target price reform has stabilized the farmers' production expectations, while the supply side structural reform has released a new growth momentum for the cotton industry.

"The new path for cotton in the region to get out of bumper harvest is the result of the superposition of policy effects, reform effects and economic effects."

Tang Yiwu, deputy director of the cropping industry and pesticide management office of the agricultural and rural Department of the autonomous region, said that the cotton target price reform has stabilized the farmers' production expectations, while the supply side structural reform has released a new growth momentum for the cotton industry.

In 2018, the whole region carried out structural reform of cotton supply side, combined with the delineation of important agricultural products protection zones, and actively guided cotton planting to continue to concentrate on the dominant producing areas, promoting appropriate scale operation of cotton, and promoting cotton production to improve quality, reduce production and increase efficiency.

"Now the quality of cotton produced by us can fully meet the needs of downstream textile enterprises and achieve high-quality and high price sales."

He Hongtao said that in addition to biological control and other new plant protection technology to improve the quality of cotton, cotton variety control has also played an important role.

"We only choose one cotton variety as the main variety to ensure the consistency of cotton quality, so that cotton production can be standardized and unified."

He Hongtao said.

Tang Yiwu introduced that in recent years, the cotton variety structure has been optimized continuously, and each cotton planting county (city) has two main and auxiliary planting modes to further optimize the cotton variety structure and improve the comprehensive benefit of cotton production.

In order to further enhance the efficiency of the whole cotton industry chain, the processing enterprises in the downstream of the cotton industry have gradually entered the field of production, promoting the close link between the upper and lower reaches of the cotton industry chain and improving the level of development.

In 2018, Xinjiang Lihua cotton industry Limited by Share Ltd signed an agreement with the local farmers' land share cooperatives in Sha Ya county and Awati County, and adopted a combination of "order acquisition + dividend", "land pfer + preferential employment" and so on, to allow farmers to share profits.

The enterprise plans to build 1 million mu of high standard farmland in 3 years, and build processing facilities such as cotton mills and weaving factories, while promoting local cooperatives and farmers to raise the management level of cotton planting. At the same time, it will gradually improve the layout of the whole cotton industry chain, realize the cotton processing and pformation in situ, and promote the pformation and upgrading of the cotton industry.

"After the integration of land circulation, the efficiency of cotton production has been significantly improved. Farmers can not only get land pfer fees and land dividends, but also choose jobs in cotton planting, processing, cotton spinning, weaving and other sectors, and increase incomes."

Zhang Qihai, chairman of the company.

Pushing costs down sharply

The promotion of mechanization not only reduced the cost of cotton production, but also improved the quality of cotton and optimized the commodity character.

In the past, cotton production was a very labor intensive agricultural labor, and a large number of labor costs reduced the comprehensive benefits of cotton production.

Today, this situation is undergoing a radical change. The mechanization level of cotton harvesting links has been continuously improved, and cotton production has been mechanized in some areas.

In Sha Ya county, the main cotton producing area in southern Xinjiang, machine picked cotton has become the new mode of production for local cotton farmers.

Xian Yulin, chairman of Daxin agricultural machinery professional co operative Committee in the town of shal County, Shah County, introduced that mechanized harvesting reduced cotton planting costs by nearly 400 yuan per mu, and was welcomed by more and more farmers. At present, more than 10 thousand mu of cotton handled by cooperatives have been fully mechanized.

The promotion of mechanization not only reduces the cost of cotton production, but also improves cotton quality and optimizes commodity quality.

"Last year, cooperatives introduced new cotton pickers, which can prevent cotton from being contaminated by foreign fibers such as hair and silk, and meet the needs of downstream textile enterprises."

Xian Yulin said.

In 2018, the cotton production rate increased from 21% in 2016 to 30% in 2018, and 650 new cotton pickers in the region, totaling more than 3600, with a record high growth rate.

At present, the cotton production rate in the main cotton areas of Northern Xinjiang has exceeded 80%, and some counties and cities are close to 100%.

With the rapid popularization of machine picked cotton, the efficiency of machine picked cotton is also improving.

The cost of cotton harvested per mu has been reduced to 1300 yuan in the pilot area of cotton supply side structural reform in Shawan County, which is 400 yuan to 900 yuan lower than that in the non pilot area.

Tang Yiwu introduced that in 2018, the main cotton producing areas in Northern Xinjiang carried out a pilot project of cost reduction and intelligent planting and production of machine picked cotton, forming a process regulation for machine drying cotton without drying and embossing, which further promoted the quality and efficiency of machine picked cotton.

Some cotton producing areas in southern Xinjiang have taken the lead in the circulation of farmers' land through large-scale leading enterprises, and promoted the appropriate scale planting of cotton, which laid the foundation for further popularization of machine picked cotton.