Cash crops are no longer economical: cotton farmers' income per mu is only more than 1200 yuan.

From input to output, cotton farmers feel that growing cotton is no longer "economical" and reduces the acreage. The difficulties faced by cotton production warn us that grain production should beware of this "uneconomic" situation.

Next month, the new cotton year will begin. The policy of temporary collection and storage of cotton, which has been implemented for three consecutive years, will not continue this year, and the pilot project of target price reform has been officially launched. All parties are paying attention to what will happen to the cotton market this year. In the past few days, I spoke on the phone with several correspondents in Shandong and talked about cotton planting. They all reflected that the cotton planting area there has been declining in recent years. This situation does not seem to be an isolated case. The data show that the area of cotton fields in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins has indeed shown a decreasing trend in recent years. Why is this happening? Farmers' feelings are the most authentic. They said that although cotton is an economic crop, it is no longer "economic".

First of all, labor input is no longer "economic". Now the whole process of growing other food crops, from sowing to harvesting, can basically be mechanized. Farmers can do accounts, and they really work in the fields for no more than a week at most. But growing cotton is not good, cotton production cycle is long, there are many links, and the level of mechanization is low. Beating cotton branches, pinching the edges, killing cotton insects, picking cotton, and even ploughing the land several times, inside and outside, it will take at least a month. Take the picking process as an example. Data show that about 30% of the world's cotton is picked by machines, while China's random harvest rate was only about 8.2% in 2012. In the context of the rising opportunity cost of agricultural production, it is obviously not cost-effective for farmers to put a lot of labor into cotton production.

Secondly, the planting income is no longer "economic". In the same piece of land, cotton can only be planted in one season, grain can be planted in two seasons of wheat and corn, and fruits and vegetables can be planted in multiple seasons. Although the price of cotton is still higher than that of grain, due to the increase in the minimum purchase price of wheat year after year, it is difficult for farmers to be as satisfied with the price of grain and cotton as in the past. According to figures from Shandong, the lint yield of the province last year was 65 kg / mu. According to the released cotton target price of 19800 yuan per ton in 2014, the income per mu is about 1200 yuan. This is basically the same as the income of growing grain for two seasons, and there is a big gap between the income of growing fruits and vegetables, and the income of going out to work. The income is not in line with expectations, how to improve the planting enthusiasm of cotton farmers?

When the input and output links are not satisfactory, it is no wonder why farmers feel that growing cotton is "uneconomical". When cash crops are no longer "economic", it is no wonder that the acreage has declined.

The problems faced by cotton production warn us that grain production should beware of this "uneconomic" situation. In recent years, the trend of high input and high cost in grain production has become increasingly obvious, and it is difficult to change the low efficiency of growing grain in a short period of time. At the same time, the income of farmers engaged in non-agricultural labor has increased sharply, and the growth rate of non-agricultural income is much higher than that from agriculture. Farmers in some areas begin to "hate agriculture" and "abandon agriculture", even if they choose to work as farmers. the tendency of non-grain production is also more serious.

Ensuring food security is inseparable from the enthusiasm of farmers to grow grain and work for agriculture. The core of arousing farmers' enthusiasm for growing grain is to make it profitable for farmers to grow grain. To ensure the income of farmers from growing grain, first, we should make up for it, and second, we should support it. In the future, while continuing to expand the total amount of subsidies, one side should explore the formation of a mechanism for linking agricultural subsidies with grain production to ensure that people with various grains receive more subsidies and maintain farmers' enthusiasm in production; on the other hand, it is necessary to improve the grain price formation mechanism, keep grain prices at a reasonable level, and ensure farmers' production and income increase through price support. At present, just as changing the mode of production, improving the degree of mechanization and reducing production costs are the realistic choices for cotton farmers, grain farmers should also be able to ensure that their inputs and outputs are more cost-effective.