Cotton farmers' subsidies will be extended to the original agricultural subsidies in the Yangtze River and Yellow River producing areas.

Chinanews.com, Sept. 22-the National Development and Reform Commission held a press conference on "pilot reform of cotton target prices and market regulation" today. Zhou Wangjun, deputy director of the Price Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that cotton subsidies will be extended to the Yangtze and Yellow River producing areas. The original policy of agricultural subsidies will remain unchanged.

When talking about the subsidy mechanism for cotton farmers, Zhou Wangjun said that a target price will be determined according to farmers' planting costs plus basic income. Whether to subsidize or not will be determined by the market price, and the state will not grant subsidies when the market price is lower than the target price. "the gap between the target price and the actual price is the amount of subsidy that we should give to the farmers. is this subsidy issued every year? when the market price is lower than the target price, the difference is given to the farmers, and when the market price is higher than the target price, the state does not issue subsidies, which is an important difference between our current target price system and the previous temporary reserve policy." Zhou Wangjun said.

Zhou Wangjun pointed out that the interests of cotton farmers will be protected through three aspects: first, to ensure the basic income of cotton farmers. Our target price principle is planting cost plus basic income, and there must be basic income after planting cotton. The production of cotton flowers is now in oversupply all over the world, and prices in the international market have fallen sharply. In this case, the state should protect the interests of domestic cotton farmers, which is the first priority. At the same time, cotton farmers also have to bear the corresponding market risk. The target price has a guiding role, that is, when the output is high, the target price can guide farmers to plant less; when the output is falling, the target price can guide farmers to grow more, which is the goal we want to achieve. Second, in addition to the pilot areas in Xinjiang, there are also major producing areas of the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins, and the state will also give appropriate subsidies. Now this principle has been determined by the State Council, how to supplement it, and how much it will be issued by the Ministry of Finance. Third, while implementing the target price of cotton, the previous policies on agricultural subsidies to farmers, including subsidies for improved varieties of cotton, remain unchanged.