The Scale Of Cotton Planting In Xinghua, Jiangsu Is Difficult To Expand

Xinghua City, Jiangsu Province, is a major grain and cotton city in China. In recent years, affected by the textile market, cotton prices have been in a passive state. The enthusiasm of cotton farmers was affected. The cotton planting area in Xinghua City decreased from 270000 mu in 2007 to 210000 mu in 2008 and 140000 mu in 2009. The purchase price of seed cotton rose sharply in 2009, which promoted the enthusiasm of some cotton farmers to plant cotton, but the increase of cotton planting area was not significant in general. It is predicted that the cotton planting area of the city in 2010 will be about 170000 mu, and the main reasons for the difficulty in expanding the cotton planting area are as follows:

1、 Now young people are unwilling to farm. According to the survey, the current farmers are all middle-aged and elderly people aged 50-70. Young people prefer to go out to work rather than farming. Some young adults also mainly go out to work. A few run enterprises locally or engage in some special farming. It takes time to grow cotton. In case of fluctuations in the market or natural disasters, the income is very low, so they are generally unwilling to plant cotton.

2、 Aquaculture occupies part of farmland. Xinghua City is a major crab breeding city in the province. In addition to the high crab production and high price in 2009, it greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of some farmers. In 2010, it expanded the breeding area, and the farmland that should be used for planting was occupied by more than 100000 mu.

3、 Farmers pay more attention to grain than cotton. In recent years, grain prices have been rising. In addition, the state has subsidized grain production and implemented the minimum protection price policy, while cotton prices are subject to market prices, which is in an unstable state. At present, the price of japonica rice in Xinghua City has reached 1.3 yuan/jin. If the yield is 1200 jin/mu, the gross income of rice is 1560 yuan/mu; The gross income of cotton is 1575 yuan/mu based on the yield of 450 jin of seed cotton per mu and the price of 3.5 yuan/jin. It can be seen that although the income per mu of grain and cotton is close, the cost of cotton planting is far greater than that of grain planting. Therefore, most people choose to grow grain rather than cotton.

Suggestion: China is a large textile country and consumes a large amount of cotton every year. In order to ensure the stability of cotton production, we hope that the country will introduce support policies for cotton planting, implement a cotton planting subsidy system for cotton farmers in key cotton producing areas, and implement the minimum protection price purchase system for cotton, standardize the purchase order, and ensure the stability of cotton planting area.