The change of the layout of the main Cotton producing areas in China the reduction of the area of the Yangtze and Yellow River basins

This year's Central Committee No. 1 document proposed to launch the pilot project of cotton target price reform in Xinjiang. In April, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly released a target price of 19800 yuan per ton for cotton in 2014. While the cotton target price policy was introduced, the temporary collection and storage policy was cancelled.

This means that cotton farmers will then sell cotton at market prices, and when the market price is lower than the target price, the state will give corresponding subsidies to cotton farmers in the pilot areas.

In recent years, the area of cotton fields in the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins has been shrinking. A few days ago, when interviewing cotton farmers, cotton merchants, and cotton seed enterprises in Shandong and Hubei, the reporter learned that the area of cotton fields in many places is still decreasing, and there are many reasons for the low enthusiasm for planting cotton. The fundamental reason is that the center of gravity of the spatial layout of China's main cotton producing areas is shifting to the inland areas of northwest China.

Cash crops that are no longer "economic"

There is such a saying in the northwest of Shandong: "Jin Gaotang, Silver Xia Jin". It is hard to tell the origin of this sentence these days, but one of the most popular explanations has to do with cotton.

According to the Records of Gaotang County, "Cotton is the constant production of Gaotang" and "goods are made of kapok in Qilu". It is true that growing cotton in Gaotang County began in the Song and Yuan dynasties and reached its peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Today, the planting area is still large. Planting history, everyone is good at growing cotton, high output, commodity volume is also large, "goods to kapok An in Qilu." Cotton farmers make money, driving the surrounding cities and counties to follow in growing cotton. Among them, the cotton planting industry in Xiajin County, Dezhou City, which is close to Gaotang County, developed rapidly, so the saying of "Jin Gaotang, Yin Xiajin" was formed.

In Liulimiao Village of Jin Gaotang, cotton farmer Zhao Dehua's family's main income over the past decade came from cotton. By growing cotton, he raised five daughters. When the benefit of growing cotton was the highest, Zhao Dehua opened up wasteland day and night to grow cotton, and planted 20 mu of cotton at most. In 2011, he still had 16 mu of cotton fields.

Now, Zhao Dehua no longer grows cotton. "it takes a lot of work and trouble, but the benefit is not good enough, so it is better to grow grain." Zhao Dehua, who has grown cotton for most of his life and has a deep affection for cotton, also began to complain about growing cotton.

When talking about the reasons for not growing cotton anymore, Zhao Dehua said that the most important reason is that the labor input is too large. It takes several times to beat cotton branches, pinch the edges, kill cotton insects, pick up cotton, and cultivated land for a month inside and outside. "now the whole process of growing grain is mechanized, and the maximum amount of work is three to five days. After planting, you can go out to work, and Yoda can earn more than 100 yuan a day." According to Zhao Dehua's slightly conservative algorithm, the labor input of growing cotton is worth at least 3000 yuan.

When asked about the benefits of growing cotton, Zhao Dehua waved again and again: "although cotton is called an economic crop, it is not 'economic'." In his impression, in the years when most cotton was planted, wheat was about 0.6 yuan per jin, while a jin of cotton could be sold for 4 yuan, so it was certainly cost-effective to grow cotton. Now, the lowest purchase price of wheat is close to 1.2 yuan per jin, and a jin of cotton is sold for less than 5 yuan.

"maybe it's because of the big environment. Cotton can't sell for money." Around 2010, when the price of cotton was the highest, the seed cotton of Zhao Dehua's family with moisture could also be sold for 7.2 yuan. In only three or four years, cotton prices have fallen by more than 1/3, and this year's prices are a little lower than last year.

Zhao Dehua said that the "big environment" is a very important part of the cotton temporary collection and storage policy and target price policy.

In 2011, China began to implement the policy of temporary collection and storage of cotton. In the past few years, this policy has indeed played an important role in stabilizing cotton production and protecting the interests of cotton farmers. However, as the cotton collection and storage price has been higher than the import price, the collection and storage pressure is increasing. In April this year, the temporary cotton collection and storage policy was abolished and the target price policy was timely introduced.

However, the target price of 19800 yuan per ton is already lower than the temporary purchase and storage price of 20400 yuan per ton last year, coupled with the fact that the detailed rules for the implementation of subsidies have not yet been promulgated, cotton farmers are not sure, so they are even more reluctant to grow cotton.

Not only Zhao Dehua no longer grows cotton, but the area of cotton fields in Liangcun Town, and even Gaotang County, where he lives, has also been decreasing in recent years. In 1984, about 60% of the million mu of farmland in Gaotang County was cotton, while only 128000 mu were planted this year.